Keating praises Hayden at annual event

Former prime minister Paul Keating says the foundations for Australia's present prosperity began under Bill Hayden and that his own career would have been different without the mentoring and support of the ALP luminary.

Mr Keating made the remarks during the second annual speech held in the former opposition leader's honour, which was delivered to a packed auditorium at the University of Southern Queensland's Ipswich campus.

"The policy coherence that has given Australia its quarter century of uninterrupted growth began its long coalescence with the day Bill Hayden convened his first shadow cabinet meeting," he said on Friday evening.