Keating was Treasurer from 1983 to 1991 and Deputy Prime Minister from 1990 to 1991. He challenged and beat Bob Hawke for the job of prime minister in 1991. He won one election in 1993 but was beaten by John Howard in 1996. As treasurer with Bob Hawke, he made lots of changes to the Australian economy and made it more modern. In the early 1990s, Australia had a really bad recession while he was treasurer, and when he became Prime Minister. As Prime Minister he tried to make Australia better friends with Asian countries and liked things like APEC. He also wanted Australia to become a republic and wanted the government to say it was "sorry" to Aboriginal people for the things that white Australians did long ago.