John Howard

John Howard
File:Ac.johnhoward.jpg
Preceded by	Paul Keating
Personal details
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Liberal

For other uses, see John Howard (disambiguation).

JOHN HOWARD IS A COOL GUY. SO IS ED :)

John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), Australian politician and 25th Prime Minister of Australia, came to office on 11 March, 1996, and gained re-election in 1998, 2001 and 2004. He is Australia's second-longest serving Prime Minister, after Sir Robert Menzies.

Howard became leader of the Liberal Party in January 1995, after having previously led the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989. His victory in the 9 October 2004 federal election gave him a fourth term of office, with control of both houses of the Parliament, and made him the most electorally successful Australian politician of recent times.

Rising politician

John Howard grew up in Earlwood, a middle-class suburb of Sydney, Australia. His middle name, Winston, was chosen by his parents in honour of the British statesman Winston Churchill. His father, Lyell Howard, who ran a petrol station and mechanical workshop in Dulwich Hill, died during Howard's teenage years, leaving his mother to take care of John and his two brothers. John Howard attended Canterbury Boys' High School and went on to study law at the University of Sydney, joining the Liberal Party in 1957. In 1971 he married Janette Parker, with whom he had three children. Although maintaing a low profile during her husband's prime ministership - in part because of health problems - Janette Howard is reputed to be a shrewd and influential adviser behind the scenes.

After practising for some years as a solicitor and simultaneously holding office in the New South Wales Liberal Party, Howard was elected to the House of Representatives as MP for the Sydney suburban seat of Bennelong in May 1974. When the Fraser government came to power in December 1975, Howard was appointed Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs, and in December 1977 he was appointed Treasurer at the age of 38: he was known as "the boy Treasurer." In April 1982 he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

During his period as Treasurer Howard became a staunch adherent of the "dry" or "economic rationalist" theories associated with Margaret Thatcher, which derived ultimately from Milton Friedman and the Chicago school of economists. Like Thatcher, he adopted the fiscal policies of neoliberalism without the more "libertarian" perspectives of the Chicago school on social issues. He favoured cuts to personal income tax and business tax, lower government spending, the dismantling of the centralised wage-fixing system, the abolition of compulsory unionism and privatising government-owned enterprises. These conservative views have dominated his subsequent career. He became frustrated that the more liberal and pragmatic Fraser — who in fact had more in common with Menzies politically than does Howard — would not embark on these radical steps. In 1982 he nearly resigned in protest at Fraser's big-spending pre-election budget.

Success, failure, success

File:Younghoward.jpg

John Howard as "boy Treasurer" in the Fraser government, 1977

After the Labor Party (ALP) under Bob Hawke won government in 1983, Howard was strongly attacked by the Hawke government for allegedly concealing the size of the budget deficit that the incoming ALP inherited from the Fraser administration. Howard contested the Liberal leadership but was defeated by Andrew Peacock, and he became Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Peacock was defeated by Hawke at the 1984 election and, despite a better-than-expected performance during that election (most commentators believed that Peacock would lose in a landslide), he began to worry that Howard was a potential leadership challenger. In May 1985 the insecure Peacock tried to remove Howard from the Deputy Leadership position, expecting him to challenge for the Leadership. The plan backfired when Howard merely stood again for the deputy's position, and won it. This put Peacock in an untenable position, and he resigned, leaving Howard to take the leadership uncontested.

Howard described himself as "the most conservative leader the Liberals have ever had," and said that "the times will suit me." In addition to his economic views, he became known as a strong social conservative, supporting the traditional nuclear family against the "permissive society" and sceptical of the promotion of multiculturalism at the expense of a shared national identity: views he has toned down but not abandoned since.

During 1985 and 1986, with unemployment rising and the economy stagnant, Howard appeared to be making ground on the government. But his dour and humourless style was no match for the charismatic Hawke and his flamboyant Treasurer, Paul Keating. Howard's chances of winning the 1987 election were destroyed when the arch-conservative Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, launched a populist "Joh for Canberra" campaign, temporarily splitting and discrediting the conservative forces. Hawke won the 1987 election comfortably.

In 1988 Howard's position was weakened by controversy following a speech in which he claimed that Australia's immigration rate was too high. In May 1989 Peacock launched a surprise leadership coup against Howard. After a brief stint on the backbench Howard returned to the Coalition front bench, but his leadership career seemed to be over, particularly when Peacock lost the 1990 election and the Liberals turned to a new, younger leader, Dr John Hewson. When asked about the chances of his making a political comeback, he compared it to "Lazarus with a triple bypass".

Howard was an enthusiastic supporter of Hewson's economic program, with the Goods and Services Tax (Australia) or GST as its centrepiece. But when Hewson lost what was said to be the "unloseable" 1993 election to Keating, Howard was again passed over for the leadership, which in 1994 went to Alexander Downer. But Downer failed to make any dent in Keating's dominance, and in January 1995 he resigned. With the Deputy Liberal leader Peter Costello unwilling to step up to the leadership, the Liberals, having no-one else to turn to, recalled Howard, who became leader for the second time.

As Opposition Leader, Howard branded himself as unassuming and cautious in contrast to Keating's flamboyance. He repudiated his earlier statements against Medicare and in favour of a GST. In a "small target" strategy, he consciously avoided enunciating a grand social vision in favour of an attack against Keating's "arrogance" and the "elitist" nature of his "big picture" politics - issues like foreign relations with Asia, Australian republicanism, multiculturalism and reconciliation with Aborigines - which, he believed, were distracting from ordinary voters' concerns and promoting pointless "navel-gazing". In his slogan "For all of us," Howard appealed to the widespread feeling that Keating had ignored mainstream Australia for the "special interest groups" - artists, feminist and indigenous lobbies, ethnic minorities and inner-city professionals. With this pitch, Howard won support from many traditional Labor constituencies (the "Howard battlers"). At the March 1996 election Howard had a sweeping victory over Keating and became Prime Minister, aged 56.

Howard as Prime Minister

First term: 1996–1998

John Howard in the United States in 1997

One of Howard's earliest notable actions in office occurred after the Port Arthur massacre of 1996, when he responded by persuading the state governments to effectively prohibit the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. Many of his own conservative supporters opposed these measures. A national buy-back scheme somewhat reduced the political damage which Howard might otherwise have suffered among (predominantly Coalition-voting) gun owners.

Howard and his cabinet immediately announced a "budget black hole" that would see a considerable reduction in all areas of government expenditure to keep the budget in surplus. Training and education programs developed under the Keating government were scrapped, funding for indigenous bodies was reduced, and a system of "work for the dole" requiring social security seekers to engage in work to remain eligible for benefits was introduced. Prudent economic management remained the government's strongest trumpeting point throughout its turn, and a prolonged period of economic growth (which Keating claimed was simply the payoff from his earlier reforms), combined with strong budget surpluses remained an essential element to its popularity.

The Howard government did not have a majority in the Senate, instead facing a situation where legislation had to be negotiated past either the Australian Democrats or the Greens. The Senate blocked or delayed much of the Government's legislation, including the partial privatisation of the government-owned telecommunications company Telstra; the modification of industrial relations laws to promulgate individual contracts; increases in university fees, large funding cuts in the 1996 and 1997 budgets; a 30% private health insurance rebate; and the extinguishment of native title on pastoral leases (following the High Court's Wik decision).

In 1997 Howard's conservative views on drugs led to him intervening to stop the planned trial of a heroin program in the Australian Capital Territory. The trial was strongly advocated by reformist ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell, a former pharmacist. She sought to introduce a European-style system in which heroin addicts would be licenced and supplied with medical-grade heroin and provided with safe injecting facilities. Howard's blocking of the heroin trial, which had been approved by all state Health Minsters, led to strong criticism from drug reform advocates.

Howard had come to office promising to improve standards of integrity among ministers and politicians, introducing a strict 'Code of Ministerial Conduct' at the start of his term. However, the strictness of his code backfired when a succession of five of his ministers (Jim Short, Geoff Prosser, John Sharp, David Jull and Peter McGauran) were required to resign following breaches of the code, mainly concerning 'travel rorts' (misuse of the ministerial travel allowance) and conflicts of interest between ministerial responsibilities and share ownership. Later, Howard was to tone down the strictness of the Code, and, perhaps as a reaction to losing so many ministers early on, would prove unwilling to require ministerial resignations for questionable conduct, leading to accusations that standards have actually dropped under his Prime Ministership.

After the 1996 election, Pauline Hanson, a disendorsed Liberal candidate who was elected as the independent member for Oxley in Queensland, used her first speech to Parliament to attack multiculturalism and reconciliation and allege that "this nation is in danger of being swamped by Asians". She later formed the One Nation Party. Howard was slow to criticise the views expressed by Hanson when compared with his opponents and Liberal Party colleagues, and his initial public reaction was to comment that he thought it good that the years of "political correctness" were finally over. Howard's unwillingness to confront One Nation was controversial with some, and led to criticism from some members of his own party, such as Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. Some saw Howard's lukewarm response to Hansonism as indicating either tacit support for its sentiments (especially given his 1988 comments on Asian immigration), or a disingenous attempt to harness their popularity among certain segments of the electorate.

The 1998 election campaign was dominated by two issues. One was reform of the tax system, including a goods and services tax (a broad-based value-added tax); the other was the rise of One Nation. The environmental movement also ran a high-profile campaign against the government's support for the Jabiluka uranium mine.

Howard's public image in 1998 had yet to achieve the status it would reach in coming years. At the November 1998 election the Liberal-National Coalition despite suffering a large swing and losing in the two-party preferred vote, narrowly won more seats in parliament. Labor leader Kim Beazley won a majority (51%) of the national two-party vote, mainly based on a scare campaign against the pain Howard's Goods and Services Tax would inflict on ordinary families, but the Liberals ran a more effective campaign in marginal electorates, aided by new campaigning techniques borrowed from the US Republican Party. Although One Nation had previously surprised commentators with a resounding performance in the Queensland election, the national campaign was poorly administered and One Nation failed to win any House of Representatives seats. Hanson herself was defeated after switching electorates to the redistributed electorate of Blair.

Second term: 1998–2001

Despite Howard's essentially domestic focus, external issues intruded significantly into Howard's second term. The first occurred in 1998 and 1999 with events in East Timor. Following the referendum in which the people of East Timor voted for independence, Australia contributed a significant peacekeeping/policing force to protect the inhabitants against pro-Indonesian militias, attracting wide praise both domestically and abroad.

Another major issue during Howard's second term was the implementation of the GST on most items except fresh food. This raised major concerns among many small businesses, who were not fully equipped to handle the accounting requirements of the new tax, which effectively off-loaded much of the day-to-day work of taxation accounting from the Australian Taxation Office to individual business people. However, the existing wholesale sales tax (WST) was removed, and the introduction of the GST was intended to introduce taxation reform. Howard was able to pass the GST legislation through the Senate after making a controversial deal with Senator Meg Lees, leader of the Australian Democrats, which party at that time held the balance of power in the Senate.

During 2001 the Howard government's image was poor, due largely its focus on a lacklustre tax reform agenda which, while successful at improving the economy, was not politically popular at that time. The government lost a by-election in the normally safe electorate of Ryan in Queensland, and Labor governments were elected in all the states and territories. In response to the declining position at this time, a number of policy changes were made, including the abandonment of petrol excise indexation and increased government benefits to self-funded retirees.

A major change in Howard's political fortunes occurred in August and September 2001, when the government refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, carrying a group of asylum seekers picked up in international waters, to enter Australian waters. The government's action was intended to reduce illegal immigration and to stop what they saw as abuse of Australia's refugee program by "bogus" asylum-seekers. After the 11 September terrorist attacks, government hostility towards asylum-seekers from Islamic countries increased, and a climate of domestic insecurity and fear contributed to a rally of support for incumbent governments in Australia.

The government introduced tough "border protection" legislation, some elements of which (though not the whole bill) were opposed by Labor in the Parliament. Howard then effectively used this as a "wedge issue" to portray Labor as "weak on national security". Beazley and the Labor Party found themselves in a difficult political position. An electorally significant fraction of the ALP's working-class voters backed the Howard line on illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers, while the party's middle-class supporters were overwhelmingly opposed to it. At the November 2001 elections the Coalition was re-elected, with a more comfortable majority than in 1998.

Third term: 2001–2004

In the two years after the 2001 election the Howard government continued its policies of taking a tough line on national security and "border protection" issues, while seeking to further its agenda of conservative social policies and pro-business economic reforms. Despite its victory in 2001, the government still did not have a Senate majority, and its ability to pass planned legislation was restricted.

Even so Howard was able to re-introduce a First Home Owners Grant. The rather small grant encouraged Australians who had not previously owned a home to buy. This has of course resulted in a rapid increase in the prices of housing in Australia, leaving Australians with higher amounts of personal debt.

Howard's reputation was damaged in what became known as the children overboard affair, when it was demonstrated that one of his claims during the asylum-seeker debate, that asylum-seekers had "thrown their children overboard" in order to force the government to allow them to land in Australia, was untrue and that he had most likely been aware of this during the election campaign. Howard also faced a difficult issue in the allegations that Howard's choice as Governor General, Dr Peter Hollingworth, in his previous job as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, had refused to investigate Anglican priests accused of paedophilia in various churches: eventually Hollingworth was forced to resign the governor-generalship amidst a storm of controversy that threatened to damage the credibility of his office.

So long as the issue of national security was prominent in the minds of voters and the Australian economy remained strong, Howard retained a clear political advantage over his opponents. Throughout 2002 and 2003 he kept his lead in the opinion polls over the then Labor leader, Simon Crean. Following the October 2002 Bali bombing Howard placed a renewed emphasis on his government's approach to national security.

In March 2003 Howard sent troops and naval units to support the United States and Britain in the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. Howard spoke strongly about the need to rid Iraq of the weapons of mass destruction [1] which he maintained Saddam's regime possessed. Australian opinion was deeply divided on the war and large public protests occurred. [2] Several senior figures from the Liberal party, including John Valder, a former president of the Liberal Party, and Howard's former friend and colleague[3], former Opposition Leader John Hewson [4] and former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser [5] publicly criticised Howard over Iraq. John Valder's criticism was particularly strong, claiming that Howard should be tried and punished as a war criminal [6]. Howard's credibility was damaged in the eyes of some when by the end of 2003 no weapons of mass destruction were discovered in Iraq. Despite these controversies, Howard maintained strong support from large sections of the population and had begun to enjoy cult-status amongst the conservative population. No Australian military casualties occurred and many believed that Saddam's removal meant the war was vindicated overall (even though Howard had previously stated that Saddam's removal alone would never have been sufficient justification for invading Iraq[7]).

During 2003-04 the Howard government was criticised for its involvement in the Iraq War and support for U.S. President George W. Bush. These criticisms came from figures such as former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and political commentator Robert Manne, as well as from within the intelligence community, the military, and the public service. On Anzac Day 2004 Howard made a visit to Australian defence personnel in Iraq. This came amid a bitter debate in Australia over the war following opposition leader Mark Latham's promise to return Australian troops by Christmas.

On 18 May, 2004, Howard marked the 30th anniversary of his election to the House of Representatives. At a function in Melbourne, leading Liberals paid tribute to his leadership and his tenacity and persistence over his long political career. The anniversary also served, however, to remind voters that Howard had been in politics a very long time, and some commentators said it would help foster a "time for a change" mood in the electorate. The government's 2004–05 budget contained increased family payments and tax cuts for middle income earners, and contributed to a recovery by the government in the opinion polls. Howard also successfully exploited what he called Latham's indecisiveness over withdrawing Australian forces from Iraq, portraying this as a threat to the U.S.-Australia alliance.

Fourth term: 2004–present

On 29 August 2004 Howard called an election for 9 October. The Labor opposition, after the resignation of Simon Crean and the election of Mark Latham as leader in December 2003, had established a lead in some opinion polls by March 2004 and the Liberal-National Coalition, led by Howard, entered the election campaign behind Labor in all the published national opinion polls. Howard himself still had a large lead over Latham as preferred Prime Minister in those same polls and most commentators regarded the result as being too close to call.

During the campaign, Howard attacked Latham's economic record as Mayor of Liverpool City Council, claiming that election of a Labor government would lead to higher interest rates. This claim was to prove vital to the outcome of the election, as increased home ownership due to the First Home Owner's Grant meant many more voters would be affected by interest rate changes.

In the closing period of the election campaign, Howard promised a large spending program on health, education, small business and family payments with the aim of trumping Latham's policy strengths. Some economists, however, criticised Howard for the scale of his election spending promises, saying the Thatcherite small government man of the 1980s and the 1996 budget had mutated into a pure political pragmatist, willing to spend big on 'middle class welfare' to win votes. It was generally agreed by media and political commentators that Latham had the better of Howard in the sole debate during the campaign, and some opinion polls continued to suggest a very close race until the last days of the campaign.

The result of the election was that the Liberal-National Coalition won an increased majority in the House of Representatives and also won a majority in the Senate from 1 July 2005, the first Government since that led by Malcolm Fraser in 1975 to do so. The strength of Australian economy under Howard's leadership may have helped him to retain the "battler" vote which, combined with his strong conservative base, gave the Coalition a election victory of 52.74% of the vote on a two party preferred basis against Labor's result of 47.26% [8]. Howard's social conservatism also helped him to win vital preferences from the new Christian-based party Family First.

The speculation that he would soon retire in favour of the Treasurer, Peter Costello, immediately receded. On 1 July 2005 the new Senate came into effect, which appears to give the government the opportunity to pass the legislation which had previously been blocked in the Senate including:

• Full privatisation of the 50.1% government-owned telecommunications company Telstra;
• A range of industrial relations bills such as those seeking to exempt small businesses from unfair dismissal legislation; increase individual employment contracts; weaken the power of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission;
• Revising media ownership laws so as to remove restrictions on media companies having control over multiple different media;
• In universities, the implementation of Voluntary Student Unionism and the reduction of the power of tertiary staff unions in negotiating employment conditions;

Since the election, John Howard announced far wider changes to industrial relations laws which have since been the subject of a national campaign by the union movement.

Despite the coalition's majority in the Senate, a number of the proposed laws are in doubt due to the opposition that has been voiced by members of the Coalition such as Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce who has threatened to vote against the sale of Telstra if certain conditions are not met to protect rural citizens, and who has raised concerns over States Rights issues related to the industrial relations announcements.

On 21 December 2004 Howard became Australia's second-longest serving Prime Minister, having led the government against three Labor opposition leaders, Beazley, Crean and Latham.

The Government response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was widely acclaimed in Australia and abroad, including the Opposition shadow foreign affairs spokesperson, Kevin Rudd, who said that an Australian Labor Party government could not have done more. Labor leader Mark Latham remained silent while ill and on holidays. Howard is also credited with suggesting the national day of mourning on 16 January 2005 with people using a sprig of acacia for remembrance of those who died or were dispossessed.

On February 22, 2005 Howard announced that Australia would increase its military commitment to Iraq [9] with an additional 450 troops, breaking a campaign promise that no such increases would occur. [10] On April 14, another firm pre-election assurance was broken when it was announced that the Medicare safety net policy presented to the electorate prior to the election, and statements by the Health Minister Tony Abbott that the policy was "an absolutely rock solid, iron-clad commitment", would now be adjusted to provide fewer benefits.

Throughout the first half of 2005, the Howard government faced increasing pressure regarding its controversial mandatory detention program. It was revealed in February that a mentally ill Australian citizen, Cornelia Rau had been held in detention for nine months. The government then established the closed non-judicial Palmer Inquiry promising that the findings would be made public. In May, it was revealed that another Australian, subsequently identified as Vivian Alvarez had been deported from Australia and that the department responsible was unable to locate her. By late May, it was revealed that an additional 200 cases of possible wrongful detention had been referred to the Palmer Inquiry.[11] [12] and also at this time Howard faced backbench revolt from small numbers of his own government demanding that reforms be made.[13] On June 2, it was revealed [14] that Cornelia Rau had been identified by the department as an Australian citizen 3 months prior to her final release from detention. On June 9, Australia's longest serving detainee, Peter Qasim, was moved to a psychiatric hospital. [15]

In mid 2005 John Howard and his cabinet began private discussions of new 'anti-terror' legislation which includes modification to the Crimes Act 1914.In particular, sections relating to sedition are to be modified. The parlimentary debate on this bill will occur on October 31st.

See also

• List of national leaders
• First Howard Ministry
• Second Howard Ministry
• Third Howard Ministry
• Fourth Howard Ministry
• List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2005

Further reading

• David Barnett and Pru Goward, John Howard, Prime Minister, Viking, 1997
• Tony Kevin A Certain Maritime Incident the sinking of SIEV X, Scribe Publications, 2004. ISBN 1920769218.
• Margo Kingston Not Happy, John! defending Australia's democracy, Penguin, June 2004. ISBN 0143002589.
• Marion Maddox God Under Howard: The rise of the religious right in Australian politics, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, February 2005. ISBN 1741145686.
• David Marr & Marian Wilkinson Dark Victory. ISBN 0143002589
• Andrew Wilkie, Axis of deceit, Schwarz Publishing, Melbourne, 2004. In series Black Inc. Agenda. ISBN 09750769-2-2 ("the story of the intelligence officer who risked all to tell the truth about WMD and Iraq": cover)

External links

• John Howard - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia
• Prime Minister of Australia | John Howard - official website
• Official Liberal Party website
• John Hewson Criticises Howard Iraq Policy (australianpolitics.com)
• ALP Website listing alleged policy lies - ALP Truth Overboard webpage

References

Iraq

• Hansard, 2003-02-04 : Howard's speech to parliament in which he puts forward his claims of imminent threat from Iraq as reasons for Australian support of the subsequent invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Manildra affair

• Margo Kingston (2003-08-12), Howard meets Honan: You be the judge whether he lied about it, The Sydney Morning Herald (Contains extract from Parliamentary transcripts of denial statements)
• Mark Riley (2003-08-14), Ethanol uproar engulfs Howard, The Sydney Morning Herald
• Record of Meeting: Manildra Group, 2003-08-01 , The Sydney Morning Herald
• Editorial (2003-08-14), PM has misled Parliament, The Sydney Morning Herald