What does Labor stand for? Does the rank and file view matter? Why is Australia doing this? Why does Australia seem to be the only one paying?

Beaming into the National Press Club on Wednesday, he also brought his trademark cutting invective. Ripping into the Prime Minister, ministers, political editors, security advisers, intelligence chiefs, world leaders and younger journalists.

Paul being Paul. Unable to get Anthony Albanese on the phone, and being of his party statesman stature, he was clearly in no mood for anything resembling a gotcha, any poking around hypocrisy or any questioning of his relevance or being properly briefed.

What makes him so sure China isn't a military threat to Australia? Fair question, perhaps not nuanced.

"Because I've got a brain, principally. And I can think. And I can read," he said, tearing into a Sky News reporter.

"I know you're trying to ask a question, but the question is so dumb, it is hardly worth an answer."

READ MORE

Ripping into the young journalists lining up, and calling Peter Hartcher a "psychopath" and "manic" is a bit of a sideshow compared to Keating's worthy analysis of world affairs and the exposure of great divisions inside Labor, but it is worth staying on for a moment.

What if John Howard or Tony Abbott or Scott Morrison had behaved in a similar, personal way, particularly with young female reporters?

There is such generalised disdain for journalism and, in some sectors, such long-time adoration for the Labor luminary, that Paul being Paul it is just accepted.

Politicians rip into journalists all the time, mostly on the phone. And journalists get roasted by the public all the time, particularly, and often personally, female journalists. A flak jacket is part of the job.

Mr Keating's acidly incisive words, at least publicly, have for decades been turned to the other side. His media critiques have always been there, privately and publicly. Now, in full fury, he stands at the vanguard of censuring his beloved Labor party.

He is not alone, but with his renewed stance, they are coming out now. Peter Garrett and unions such as the Maritime Union of Australia and the Electrical Trades Union are opposed. Mr Keating claims a majority of Labor people would share his view.

Mr Albanese has "great respect" for the Labor great but he has gone pretty far saying he had "diminished himself". He states he is here to govern in this day and age, with the current strategic environment.

A healthy, but sensitive, discussion of China is now underway.

This tempo and temperature won't keep up until the first SSN AUKUS delivery, whenever that really might be, but Australia's ruling party has been exposed for significant division. The mid-term just got even more tricky.

A handy gift to an opposition collectively happy not to be at the end of this particular Paul Keating spray.