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John Winston Howard (born 26 July, 1939) is an Australian politician and the country's 25th Prime Minister. He became Prime Minister after the election of 11 March, 1996, and his government was re-elected in 1998, 2001 and 2004; this makes him the most electorally successful Prime Minister since Sir Robert Menzies. After his victory in 2004, his government gained control of both houses of the Parliament.

Rising politician

Howard grew up in Earlwood, a middle-class suburb of Sydney. He was given the middle name, Winston, in honour of the British statesman Winston Churchill.

His father, Lyell Howard and his paternal grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They later ran a petrol station and mechanical workshop in Dulwich Hill, where John Howard worked as a boy. Lyell Howard died during John's teenage years, leaving his mother to take care of John and his two brothers.

John attended Canterbury Boys' High School and studied law at the University of Sydney, joining the Liberal Party in 1957. Too old, at 25, to be eligible for conscription Howard did not join either the permanent military or reserve forces during this period.

In 1971, he married Janette Parker, with whom he had three children. Although Janette has maintained a low profile during her husband's prime ministership — in part due to health problems — she is widely seen as having a major influence on his decision making.

Howard practised for some years as a solicitor and simultaneously held office in the New South Wales Liberal Party on the State Executive and as President of the Young Liberals (1962 -64), the party youth organisation. In 1967 he was endorsed as candidate for the state seat of Drummoyne which at the time was held by the ALP. Howard's mother sold the family home in Earlwood and took up residence with him in a house within the electorate. At the election in February 1968, Howard was defeated by the ALP candidate although the incumbent state Liberal government was returned to office for a second term.

Howard's next attempt to enter parliament was at a Federal level and was more successful. He was elected to the House of Representatives as the Member of Parliament 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 Thatcherism (usually known as "economic rationalism" in Australia). Like Thatcher, he embraced 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 trade unionism and the privatization of government-owned enterprises, views that have dominated his subsequent career. He became frustrated with the more liberal and pragmatic Fraser, who would not embark on these radical steps. In 1982, Howard nearly resigned in protest at Fraser's big-spending pre-election budget. After the 1983, defeat of the Fraser Government, Howard was attacked by the incoming Hawke government for allegedly lying to Parliament about the size of the budget deficit left by the outgoing Fraser government.

Success, failure, success

Following Fraser's resignation, Howard contested the Liberal leadership, but was defeated by Andrew Peacock. He remained Deputy Leader and became Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Peacock was defeated by Hawke at the 1984 election and although he had lost by less than most commentators expected, Peacock began to worry that Howard was planning to challenge for the leadership. In May 1985, he tried to remove Howard from the Deputy Leadership position, expecting him to challenge for the Leadership. The plan backfired when Howard stood again for the deputy's position, and won. This put Peacock in an untenable position and he resigned, leaving Howard to take the leadership unopposed.

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. Howard is strongly opposed to gay marriage, or recognising a watered down same sex civil unions. His views on social issues have been toned down over the years but never abandoned.

During 1985 and 1986, with unemployment rising and the economy stagnant, Howard appeared to be making ground on the government. However, his dour and humourless style was no match for the charismatic Hawke and his acerbic 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 the rate of Asian immigration into Australia 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. In fact, Howard compared the possibility of a political comeback to "Lazarus with a triple bypass".

Howard was an enthusiastic supporter of Hewson's economic program, with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) as its centrepiece. When Hewson lost the "unloseable" 1993 election to Paul Keating, Howard was again passed over for the leadership, which went to Alexander Downer. Downer failed to dent Keating's dominance and in January 1995 he resigned as leader. The party's Deputy Leader, Peter Costello was unwilling to step up to the leadership, and Howard became leader for the second time.

As Opposition Leader, Howard adopted a more pragmatic position than he had done during his first term in the leadership. He repudiated his earlier statements against Medicare and in favour of a GST. In a "small target" strategy, he attacked the "arrogance" and the "elitist" nature of Keating's "big picture" politics - issues like foreign relations with Asia, Australian republicanism, multiculturalism and reconciliation with indigenous Australians - which, Howard believed, were irrelevant to ordinary voters. With his slogan "For all of us", Howard signalled his preferment for ordinary, mainstream Australia over the unspoken "all of them" of "elite special interest groups".

Howard as Prime Minister

The 1996 election campaign

With the electorate still suffering from reform fatigue, the 'Recession we had to have', and the then record interest rate repayments, Howard won over many traditional Labor voters, sometimes called the "Howard battlers" (roughly equivelent to the American Reagan Democrats), and scored a sweeping victory at the 1996 elections over Keating to become Prime Minister of Australia at the age of 56.

In the lead up to the 1996 election, Pauline Hanson, the Liberal candidate for Oxley in Queensland was disendorsed because of comments she made to The Queensland Times. Howard was slow to express views on Hanson; his initial public reaction was to comment that he thought that it good that the years of "political correctness" were finally over. Howard's lukewarm response was variously interpreted as either indicating tacit support for the sentiments, or as a disingenuous attempt to harness their popularity among certain segments of the electorate. Hanson was elected as an independent member and used her first speech to Parliament to attack multiculturalism and reconciliation and allege that "we are in danger of being swamped by Asians" . She later formed Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party.

First term: 1996–1998

Howard and his cabinet immediately announced the previous government had left behind a "budget black hole" that necessitated considerable reduction in almost all areas of government expenditure. 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 was introduced. Prudent economic management remained the government's strongest claim throughout its term, and a prolonged period of economic growth (which Keating claimed was simply the payoff from his earlier reforms), combined with strong budget surpluses, remain an essential element in its popularity.

In 1996, Australia was stunned when 35 people were killed by Martin Bryant in the Port Arthur massacre. Howard responded by compelling the state governments to outlaw the ownership of semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. The ban and an accompanying 'gun buy-back scheme' was popular with the general population but not with predominantly Coalition-voting gun owners.

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).

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. The strictness of his code backfired when a succession of seven of his ministers (Jim Short, Geoff Prosser, John Sharp, David Jull, Brian Gibson, Bob Woods and Peter McGauran) were required to resign following breaches of the code, concerning a variety of 'travel rorts' (misuse of the ministerial travel allowance) and conflicts of interest between ministerial responsibilities and share ownership. Prosser had attempted to use his ministerial office to further his own business interests. Another two ministers (John Moore and Warwick Parer) were discovered to have breached the code, but at that point Howard opted to ignore it, rather than lose more of his front bench.

The 1998 election campaign

The 1998 election campaign was dominated by two issues. One was reform of the tax system, including the introduction of a broad based goods and services tax (a broad-based value-added tax), which Howard had several years earlier said he would "never, ever" introduce; the other was One Nation.

At the October 1998 election, the Liberal-National Coalition, suffered a large swing, largely driven by a scare campaign against the Goods and Services Tax. Labor leader Kim Beazley won a 51% of the national two-party preferred vote, but the Liberals ran an effective marginal electorate campaign and were returned with a comfortable majority in parliament.

Although One Nation had previously surprised commentators with a resounding performance in the Queensland state election, its national campaign was poorly administered and One Nation failed to win any House of Representatives seats. An electoral redistribution had rendered Pauline Hanson's seat of Oxley unwinnable. She stood in neighbouring electorate Blair but was defeated.

Second term: 1998–2001

Despite Howard's essentially domestic focus, external issues intruded significantly into Howard's second term when the people of East Timor voted for independence in a United Nations sponsored referendum. Indonesian milita, alledgedly covertly backed by Indonesian troops, began a brutal campaign of repression. After enormous public pressure, Howard broke with the previous bi-partisan policy of unquestioning support for Indonesia and Australia contributed a significant peacekeeping/policing force to protect the inhabitants against pro-Indonesian militias, attracting praise domestically and in several countries, but angering some Indonesians and Islamists.

The other major issue during Howard's second term was the implementation of the GST, replacing a range of taxes on specific goods with a flat rate on almost all goods and services. All GST revenue is distributed to the states. This was intended to give the States responsibility for their own finances and end the annual funding squabble between the States and the Federal Government. The Federal Government continues to determine the share of GST revenue received by each state.

Howard was only able to pass the GST legislation through the Senate after making a deal with Australian Democrats' leader Senator Meg Lees to exclude a number of items from the GST, most notably food. This increased the complexity of the GST, which had already increased the frequency and detail of reporting required by small businesses.

As a partial offset for the GST, a $7,000 "first home buyers grant" was introduced in 2000. The grant was paid at settlement, and Australian banks chose to count it towards a buyer's 10% deposit, increasing the borrowing limit of applicants by $70,000 and feeding a housing boom already sparked by world-wide low interest rates.

Most of the resentment for the GST fell on the Democrats, but the Howard government was trailing in the polls in 2001. 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 (except South Australia, which fell to Labor in 2002). 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.

The 2001 election campaign

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. Howard ordered the ship be boarded by the SAS and spoke strongly of the need for Australia to 'decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come'. The 11 September terrorist attacks further increased hostility towards asylum-seekers fleeing Islamic countries.

The government introduced tough "border protection" legislation. Kim Beazley and the Labor opposition found themselves in a difficult political position. An electorally significant fraction of the ALP's working-class voters backed the Howard line on asylum-seekers, while the party's middle-class supporters were overwhelmingly opposed to it. Wedged between the two camps, Beazley offered half hearted support to Howard's legislation, infuriating the middle class without winning back any of the anti-immigration vote from Howard.

At the November 2001 elections the Coalition was re-elected, with a larger majority than in 1998.

Third term: 2001–2004

In the two years after the 2001 election the Howard government continued its 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.

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 joined Britain in sending troops and naval units to support the United States 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 , which he said he had evidence that Saddam's regime possessed.

Australian opinion was deeply divided on the war and large public protests occurred. Several senior figures from the Liberal party, including John Valder, a former president of the Liberal Party, and Howard's former friend and colleague , former Opposition Leader John Hewson and former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser publicly criticised Howard over Iraq. John Valder's criticism was particularly strong, claiming that Howard should be tried and punished as a war criminal .

Howard's credibility was attacked when no weapons of mass destruction were discovered in Iraq. As of December 2005, no Australian military fatalities have occurred in Iraq.

On Anzac Day 2004, Howard made a surprise 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. Howard portrayed Latham as a threat to the U.S.-Australia alliance. After the 2004 federal election, it was revealed that Latham believed the ANZUS alliance was a legacy of the White Australia Policy.

The 2004–05 budget increased family payments and tax cuts for middle income earners, and contributed to a recovery by the government in the opinion polls.

The 2004 election campaign

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 government 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 strongly attacked Latham's economic record as Mayor of Liverpool City Council, persuading the electorate that election of a Labor government could see a rise in interest rates. This was a significant threat, because total borrowing by home owners had risen when rates had dropped, meaning that even though rates were historically low, loan repayments were higher than at the peak of interest rates under Keating. Any significant increase in rates could be expected to hurt badly.

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 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.

The election resulted in an increased Coalition majority in the House of Representatives and also a government majority in the Senate, the first government majority in that chamber since the 1977 election. The strength of the 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 comfortable election victory of 52.74% of the vote on a two party preferred basis against Labor's result of 47.26% . Howard's social conservatism also helped him to win vital preferences from the socially conservative party Family First.

Fourth term: 2004–present

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.

On 1 July 2005 the new Senate came into effect, giving the Government control of both houses. This is the first Australian government since the days of the Fraser government that is able to pass any legislation it wishes, without having to first gain the approval of another party or hold a double dissolution election.

Legislation which had previously been blocked and has now been passed includes:

• Full privatisation of the 50.1% government-owned telecommunications company Telstra;
• A range of industrial relations bills seeking to exempt most businesses from unfair dismissal legislation; greatly reduce the ability of workers to bargain collectively with employers; greatly reduce the ability of micro-companies to bargain collectively with large companies; reduce the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission;

Other legislation which had previously been blocked in the Senate includes:

• In universities, the implementation of Voluntary Student Unionism and the reduction of the power of tertiary staff unions in negotiating employment conditions.
• Revising media ownership laws so as to remove restrictions on media companies having control over multiple different media.

In 2005, Howard announced fundamental and wide-ranging changes to industrial relations laws which have since been the subject of a national campaign by the union movement and state Labor governments.

Despite the coalition's majority in the Senate, a number of the proposed laws were in doubt, due to the opposition that has been voiced by Queensland National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce who had threatened to vote against the sale of Telstra. Joyce raised concerns in relation to the industrial relations announcements but eventually supported.

On February 22, 2005 Howard announced that Australia would increase its military commitment to Iraq with an additional 450 troops, when he had anticipated that no such increases would occur. 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.

Unfinished business

Throughout the first half of 2005, the Howard government faced increasing pressure regarding the controversial mandatory detention program. It was revealed in February that a mentally ill German citizen and Australian Resident, 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. and also at this time Howard faced backbench revolt from small numbers of his own government demanding that reforms be made. On June 2, it was revealed 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.

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.

Howard might expect to control the timing of his Anti-Terrorism legislations announcement. However, on 14 October 2005, Jon Stanhope (Chief Minister of the ACT) took the controversial step of publishing the confidential draft of the Federal Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 on his website. This action was both praised and criticised. Citing concerns about rights, he later refused to sign off on a revised version of the legislation, becoming the only State and Territorial leader to not sign. The House of Representatives recently passed the anti-terrorism legislation which will soon be debated in the Senate before its final implementation in December 2005.

On 2 November 2005, Howard held a press conference to announce that he had received information from police and ASIO that indicated an imminent terrorist attack in Australia. Within a week, on 8 November, anti-terrorist raids were held across Melbourne and Sydney, with 17 suspected terrorists arrested , including Abdul Nacer Benbrika. These raids, according to Howard, demonstrated the need for his Anti-Terrorism Bill. According to the Greens and Democrats, the raids demonstrate that no further legislation is needed as even the current legislation was sufficient to allow ASIO and the AFP to act in some cases. Critics have also said that the press conference was held on the same day as the changes to industrial relations laws were introduced to Parliament, even though much of the intelligence was not new, suggesting it was an attempt to divert attention away from the IR law changes.

On Tuesday 15th of November protest rallies were held around the country, in opposition of the Howard government’s planned changes to industrial relations laws. Approximately 560,000 people turned out to the protests, largely organised by various union movements. These laws were passed without substantial change.

For as long as the party wants me

It is believed by some that Howard had a 'Kirribilli agreement' to hand over the leadership to Treasurer, Peter Costello. There is speculation that Howard would prefer to see the leadership go to someone more in line with his own philosophical position. Howard has said that he will remain leader as long as he has the confidence of his party.

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 ISBN 0670873896
• 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 (WMD and the invasion of Iraq)

External links

• Prime Minister of Australia: John Howard Prime Minister's official website
• Australia's Prime Ministers: John Howard National Archives of Australia
• John Howard's maiden speech to parliament
• Official Liberal Party website
• John Hewson Criticises Howard Iraq Policy australianpolitics.com
• Truth Overboard ALP website listing alleged policy lies.

References

Iraq

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

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