Keating was appointed
Secretary of the
Department of Employment and Industrial Relations in May 1983. In 1986 Keating shifted to head the
Department of Finance. In 1991, Prime Minister
Paul Keating (no relation) recommended that Michael Keating be appointed as Secretary to the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Keating retired from the role and left the
Australian Public Service in 1996. Between 1997 and 2007, Keating was a visiting fellow in the Economics Program at the Australian National University. His two principal fields of interest were: integration of social and economic policy, particularly as it relates to improving labour market outcomes; and research into the factors which are affecting Australia's governance, and how governments, institutions and policies are responding, and how relations between the citizen and the state are changing. In 2015 Keating was appointed as Chairman of The
Committee for Sustainable Retirement Incomes. ==Awards and honours==