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John Winston Howard, AC (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.
Howard was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1974 to 2007, representing the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. He served as Treasurer in the government of Malcolm Fraser from 1977–1983. He was Leader of the Liberal Party and Coalition Opposition from 1985–1989, which included the 1987 federal election against Bob Hawke.
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The most important civil liberty... is to stay alive and to be free from violence and death..
Terrorism Summit (Friday, August 5, 2005)
Truth is absolute, truth is supreme, truth is never disposable in national political life.
ABC Radio "AM" (25 August 1995)
I accept that in a free society you have to justify reductions in people's liberties. I accept that, bearing in mind my starting point is that the most important human right is the right to life..
Terrorism Summit (Friday, August 5, 2005)
I think when people talk about civil liberties, they sometimes forget that action taken to protect the citizen against physical violence and physical attack is a blow in favour and not a blow against civil liberties.
Terrorism Summit (Friday, August 5, 2005)
I've never believed in lower wages. Never. Never believed in lower wages, I've never believed in lower wages as an economic instrument.
We decide who comes into this country, and the circumstances in which they come.
Speech used in advertising material by the Liberal Party in the 2001 Federal election.
Encyclopedia
John Winston Howard, AC (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.
Howard was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1974 to 2007, representing the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. He served as Treasurer in the government of Malcolm Fraser from 1977–1983. He was Leader of the Liberal Party and Coalition Opposition from 1985–1989, which included the 1987 federal election against Bob Hawke. He was re-elected as Leader of the Opposition in 1995.
Howard led the Liberal-National Coalition to victory at the 1996 federal election, defeating Paul Keating's Labor government and ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. Howard was sworn in as Prime Minister on 11 March 1996. Howard's government was re-elected at the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections. Major issues for the Howard Government included taxation, industrial relations, immigration, the Iraq war, and aboriginal relations. Howard's coalition government was defeated at the 2007 election, by the Australian Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd. Howard also lost his electoral division of Bennelong to Labor's Maxine McKew, making him the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce in 1929, to lose his own seat.
Early life
John Howard is the fourth son of Lyall Howard and Mona (née Kell). His parents were married in 1925. His eldest brother Stanley was born in 1926, followed by Walter in 1929, and Robert (Bob) in 1936. Lyall Howard was an admirer of Winston Churchill, and a sympathiser with the New Guard.
Howard grew up in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood in a Methodist family. His mother had been an office worker until her marriage. His father and his paternal grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They also ran two Dulwich Hill petrol stations where John Howard worked as a boy.
Lyall Howard died in 1955 when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of John (or "Jack" as he was also known).
Howard suffered a hearing impairment in his youth, leaving him with a slight speech impediment, and he continues to wear a hearing aid. It also influenced him in subtle ways, limiting his early academic performance; encouraging a reliance on an excellent memory; and in his mind ruling out becoming a barrister as a likely career.
Howard attended the publicly funded state schools Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys' High School.
Howard won a citizenship prize in his final year at Earlwood (presented by local politician Eric Willis), and subsequently represented his secondary school at debating as well as cricket and rugby. Cricket remained a life-long hobby. In his final year at school he took part in a radio show hosted by Jack Davey, Give It a Go broadcast on the commercial radio station, 2GB, and a recording of the show survives. After gaining his Leaving Certificate, he studied law at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1961, and subsequently practising as a solicitor for twelve years.
Howard married fellow Liberal Party member Janette Parker in 1971, with whom he had three children: Melanie (1974), Tim (1977) and Richard (1980).
Early political career
Howard joined the Liberal Party in 1957. He held office in the New South Wales Liberal Party on the State Executive and served as President of the Young Liberals (1962–64), the party youth organisation. Howard supported Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, although has since said there were "aspects of it that could have been handled and explained differently".
At the 1963 federal election, Howard acted as campaign manager in his local seat of Parkes for the successful candidacy of Tom Hughes who defeated the 20 year Labor incumbent.
In 1967 with the support of party power brokers, John Carrick and Eric Willis, he was endorsed as candidate for the marginal suburban state seat of Drummoyne, held by the ALP. Howard's mother sold the family home in Earlwood and rented a house with him at Five Dock, a suburb within the electorate. At the election in February 1968, in which the incumbent state Liberal government was returned to office, Howard failed to defeat the sitting member, despite campaigning vigorously. Howard and his mother subsequently returned to Earlwood, moving to a house on the same street where he grew up.
At the 1974 federal election, Howard successfully contested the Sydney suburban seat of Bennelong and became a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives during the Gough Whitlam-led Labor Government. Howard backed Malcolm Fraser for the leadership of the Liberal Party against Billy Snedden's following the 1974 election. When Fraser won office in December 1975, Howard was appointed Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs, a position in which he served until 1977. At this stage, he followed the protectionist and pro-regulation stance of Fraser and the Liberal Party.
Federal Treasurer (1977–1983)
In December 1977, at the age of 38, Howard was appointed Treasurer. During his five years in the position, he became an adherent of free-market economics, which was challenging economic orthodoxies in place for most of the century. He came to favour tax reform including broad-based taxation (later the GST), a freer industrial system including the dismantling of the centralised wage-fixing system, the abolition of compulsory trade unionism, privatisation and deregulation.
In 1978, the Fraser government instigated a committee of inquiry, the Campbell Committee, to investigate financial system reforms. The impetus for the commission came, not from Howard, but from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Howard supported the Campbell report, but adopted an incremental approach with Cabinet, as there was wide opposition to deregulation within the government and the treasury. The process of reform began before the committee reported 2½ years later, with the introduction of the tender system for the sale of Treasury notes in 1979, and Treasury bonds in 1982. Ian Macfarlane (Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, 1996-2006) described these reforms as "second only in importance to the float of the Australian dollar in 1983." In 1981 he proposed a broad-based indirect tax with compensatory cuts in personal rates; however, cabinet rejected it citing both inflationary and political reasons.After the free-marketeers or "drys" of the Liberals challenged the protectionist policies of Minister for Industry and Commerce Philip Lynch, they shifted their loyalties to Howard. Following an unsuccessful leadership challenge by Andrew Peacock to unseat Fraser as prime minister, Howard was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party in April 1982. His election depended largely on the support of the "drys", and he became the champion of the growing free-market lobby in the party.
Fraser's negotiations with the ACTU saw him lose control of a wages explosion in 1982 just as the mining boom had ended. The economic crises of the early 1980s brought Howard into conflict with the economically conservative Fraser. As the economy headed towards the worst recession since the 1930s, Keynesian Fraser pushed an expansionary fiscal position much to Howard's and Treasury's horror. With his authority as treasurer being flouted, Howard considered resigning in July 1982, but, after discussions with his wife and senior advisor John Hewson (Liberal Party leader himself from 1990 to 1994), he decided to "tough it out". The 1982 wages explosion—wages rose 16 per cent across the country—resulted in stagflation; unemployment touched double-digits and inflation peaked at 12.5% (official interest rates peaked at 21%).
The Fraser Government with Howard as Treasurer lost the 1983 election to the Labor Party led by Bob Hawke. Over the course of the 1980s, the Liberal party came to accept the free-market policies that Fraser had resisted and Howard had espoused; namely low protection, decentralisation of wage fixation, financial deregulation, a broadly-based indirect tax, and the rejection of counter-cyclical fiscal policy.
Opposition years (1983–1996)
Following the 1983 defeat of the Fraser government and Fraser's subsequent resignation from parliament, Howard contested the Liberal leadership but was defeated by Andrew Peacock. Remaining Deputy Leader of the parliamentary party, Howard became Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Party were defeated by Hawke and Labor at the 1984 election. In 1985, as Labor's position in opinion polls improved, Peacock's popularity sank, and Howard's profile rose, leadership speculation persisted. Peacock said he would no longer accept Howard as deputy unless he offered assurances that he would not challenge for the leadership. Following Howard's refusal to offer such an assurance, Peacock sought, in September 1985, to replace him with John Moore as Deputy Leader. The party room re-elected Howard as Deputy on 5 September (38 votes to 31), and, believing his position untenable, Peacock immediately resigned the leadership. With Peacock not contesting the ensuing Liberal Party leadership ballot, Howard defeated Jim Carlton 57 votes to 6, and became Leader of the Opposition.
Leader of the opposition and new economic policy
Howard was in effect the Liberal party's first pro-market leader in the conservative Coalition and spent the next two years working to revise Liberal policy away from that of Fraser's. In his own words he was an "economic radical" and a social conservative. Referring to the pro-market liberalism of the 1980s, Howard, famously said in July 1986 that "The times will suit me". That year the economy was seen to be in crisis with a 40% devaluation of the Australian dollar, a marked increase in the current account defecit and the loss of the Federal Government's triple A rating. In response to the economic circumstances, Howard persistently attacked the Labor government had offered his free-market reform agenda. Despite the economic news, support for the Labor Party and Hawke strengthened in 1985 and 1986. Howard's approval ratings dropped in the face of infighting between Howard and Peacock supporters, a "public manifestation of disunity" over policy positions, and questions over Howard's leadership.
To capitalise on Coalition disunity, Hawke called the 1987 election 6 months early. In addition to the Howard-Peacock rivalry, Queensland National Party criticism of the federal Liberal and National leadership led to a split in the Coalition whereby Nationals ran against Liberals, and culminated in the "Joh for Canberra" campaign. Keating successfully campaigned against John Howard's proposed tax changes forcing Howard to admit a double-counting in the proposal, and emphasising to the electorate that the package would mean at that stage undisclosed cuts to government services. The Hawke Government was re-elected with an increased majority.
Howard's social agenda
As part of a new social agenda to accompany his economic agenda (later documented in the "Future Directions" manifesto), Howard promoted the traditional family and was antipathetic to the promotion of multiculturalism at the expense of a shared Australian identity. The new agenda's immigration policy, One Australia, outlined a vision of "one nation and one future" and opposed multiculturalism. In a radio interview discussing multiculturalism Howard suggested that to support "social cohesion" the rate of Asian immigration be "slowed down a little". The comments divided opinion within the Coalition, and undermined Howard's standing amongst Liberal party figures including federal and state Ministers, intellectual opinion makers, business leaders, and within the Asia Pacific. Prime Minister Hawke moved a motion to affirm that race or ethnicity would not be used as immigrant selection criteria to which three Liberal MPs crossed the floor and two abstained. Many Liberals later nominated the issue as instrumental in Howard subsequently losing the leadership in 1989.
Later in 1988, Howard elaborated his opposition to multiculturalism by saying "To me, multiculturalism suggests that we can't make up our minds who we are or what we believe in." In line with "One Australia's" rejection of Aboriginal land rights, Howard said the idea of an Aboriginal treaty was "repugnant to the ideals of One Australia" and commented "I don't think it is wrong, racist, immoral or anything, for a country to say 'we will decide what the cultural identity and the cultural destiny of this country will be and nobody else."
Loss of the leadership
As the country's economic position worsened in 1989, public opinion moved away from Labor, but Howard was unable to translate this into a firm opinion poll lead for himself and the Coalition. In February, Liberal Party president and prominent businessman, John Elliott, said confidentially to Andrew Peacock that he would support him in a leadership challenge against Howard. Following months of plotting by Elliot, Peacock and supporters, in May a surprise leadership coup was launched, ousting Howard as Liberal leader. When asked that day whether he could become Liberal leader again, Howard famously likened it to "Lazarus with a triple bypass". The loss of the Liberal Party leadership to Peacock deeply affected Howard, who admitted he would occasionally drink too much. Declining Peacock's offer of Shadow Education, Howard went to the backbench and a new period of party disunity ensued. Howard served as Shadow Minister for Industry, Technology and Communications, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on the Public Service, Chairman of the Manpower and Labour Market Reform Group, Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Manager of Opposition Business in the House.
Following the Coalition's 1990 election loss, Peacock was replaced with former Howard staffer Dr. John Hewson. Howard was a supporter of Hewson's economic program, with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) as its centrepiece. After Hewson lost the "unloseable" 1993 election to Paul Keating, Howard unsuccessfully challenged Hewson for the leadership. In 1994, he 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. Peter Costello, deputy party leader, did not challenge for the leadership, over a decade later citing an agreement between the pair that allowed Howard to become leader for a second time unopposed. Howard said no deal had ever been made.
Opposition leader again
As Opposition Leader for the second time, Howard revised his earlier statements against Medicare and Asian immigration. During the campaign Howard outlined his vision of Australia in 2000 to the ABC:
Following Howard's election to Opposition Leader, the Coalition opened a large lead over Labor in most opinion polls, and Howard overtook his old nemesis Paul Keating as preferred Prime Minister. Having said as leader in 1985 that it was "better to be right than popular", the second time around, Howard pursued what was described as a "small target" approach to campaigning and policy. His seat of Bennelong had become home to many Asian immigrants; in 1995 he apologised for his 1988 remarks about Asian immigration, and in May 2002 as Prime Minister, Howard retracted the remarks:My instinct is that Asian-Australians are very much part of the community now. I think it (their integration) has been quicker. I just don't hear people talking about it now, even as much as they did five years ago, and I have an electorate which is very Asian.
Prime Minister
Election win and first term
With the support of many traditionally Labor voters—dubbed "Howard battlers"—Howard led the Liberal-National party Coalition to win the 1996 elections, achieving the second-largest swing against an incumbent government since Federation. With a 45-seat majority, the size of the Coalition victory gave John Howard great power within the Liberal party and he said he came to the office "with very clear views on where I wanted to take the country". At the age of 56, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 11 March 1996, ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. Howard departed with tradition and made his primary residence Kirribilli House rather than The Lodge.
Early in the term Howard had championed significant new restrictions on gun ownership following the Port Arthur massacre in which 35 people had been shot dead. Achieving agreement in the face of immense opposition from within the Coalition and some State governments, was credited with significantly elevating John Howard’s stature as Prime Minister despite a backlash from core Coalition rural constituents.
Howard's initial silence on the views of Pauline Hanson—a disendorsed Liberal Party candidate and later independent MP—was criticised in the press as an endorsement of her views. Howard said that she was entitled to express her opinion, that many others would share it, and that to denounce her would "elevate it". Howard repudiated her views seven months after Hanson's controversial maiden parliamentary speech.
Following the Wik Decision of the High Court in 1996, John Howard's government moved swiftly to legislate limitations on its possible implications through the so-called Ten-Point Plan.
From 1997, Howard spear-headed the Coalition push to introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the 1998 election. Before winning the Prime Ministership, Howard had said it would "never ever" be part of Coalition policy. A long held conviction of Howard’s, the tax reform proposal was credited with boosting his confidence and direction, which had appeared to wane early in the Government’s second term. The 1998 election was dubbed a "referendum on the GST", and the tax changes—including the GST—were implemented in the government's second term after amendments to the legislation were negotiated with the Australian Democrats to ensure its passage through the Senate.
Through much of its first term, opinion polling was disappointing for the government and its members at times feared being a "one-term wonder". The popularity of Pauline Hanson, and the new restrictions on gun ownership drew many traditionally Coalition voters away from the Howard government. Also unpopular with voters were large spending cuts aimed at eliminating the budget deficit (and Howard's distinction between "core" and "non-core" election promises when cutting spending commitments), industrial changes and the 1998 waterfront dispute, the partial sale of government telecommunications company Telstra, and the Government's commitment to a GST. In October 1998, Howard led the Government to win a second term. Actually achieving a smaller two-party preferred vote than Labor's, the Coalition's March 1996 majority of 45 seats was reduced to 12.
Second term
In 1998, Howard convened a Constitutional Convention which decided in principle that Australia should become a Republic. At the convention Howard confirmed himself as a monarchist, and said that of the Republican options, he preferred the minimalist model. Despite opinion polls suggesting Australians favoured a republic, a 1999 referendum rejected the model chosen by the convention.
Although new Indonesian President B.J. Habibie had some months earlier agreed to grant special autonomy to Indonesian-occupied East Timor, Habibie's subsequent snap decision for a referendum on the territory's independence was triggered by a Howard and Downer orchestrated shift in Australian policy. In September 1999, Howard organised an Australian-led international peace-keeping force to East Timor (INTERFET), after pro-Indonesian militia retaliated to the overwhelmingly vote for independence with a violent "scorched-earth" campaign. The successful INTERFET mission was widely supported by Australian voters, but the government was criticised for "foreign policy failure" following the violence and collapse of diplomatic relations with Indonesia.
Throughout his prime-ministership, Howard was resolute in his refusal to provide the apology to Indigenous Australians recommended in the 1997 “Bringing Them Home” report. However, on 26 August 1999 John Howard personally expressed "deep sorrow" and said that "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies." Following his 2007 loss of the Prime Minister-ship, Howard was the only living former Prime Minister who declined to attend the February 2008 apology made by Kevin Rudd with bi-partisan support.
Howard did not commit to serving a full term if he won the next election; on his 61st birthday in July 2000 he said he would consider the question of retirement when he turned 64. This was interpreted as boosting Costello’s leadership aspirations, and the enmity over leadership and succession resurfaced publicly when Howard did not retire at the age of 64. In the first half of 2001, rising petrol prices, voter enmity over the implementation of the GST, a spike in inflation and economic slowdown led to bad opinion polls and predictions the Government would lose office in the election later that year. With Howard telling Cabinet he was "not going to be sacrificed on the pyre of ideological purity", the government announced a serious of policy reversals and softenings which boosted the government's fortunes, as did news that the economy had avoided recession. Following the Liberal Party win at the Aston by-election, Howard said that the Coalition was “back in the game”. The government's position on "border protection", in particular the "Tampa" incident where Howard refused the landing of asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian freighter, consolidated the improving polls for the government, as did the September 11, 2001 attacks. It required precise social and political calculation to embody these "protectionist" policies (opposed to "unconscionable" temporary solutions proposed by the nationalists) in legislation; John Howard led the government to victory in the 2001 federal election with an increased majority.
Third term
Howard had first met US President George W. Bush in the days before the September 11 terrorist attacks and was in Washington the morning of the attacks. He developed a strong personal relationship with the president, and shared a common ideology on many issues, including their approach to the "War on Terror". In May, 2003, Howard made an overnight stay at Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch in Texas, after which Bush said that Howard "...is not only a man of steel, he's showed the world he's a man of heart." In response to the attacks, Howard invoked the ANZUS Treaty saying the strikes were an attack on Australia, and the invocation of the treaty "demonstrates Australia's steadfast commitment to work with the United States.” In October, he committed Australia military personnel to the war in Afghanistan.
In March 2003, Australia joined the US-led "Multinational force in Iraq" in sending 2,000 troops and naval units to support in the invasion of Iraq. Howard said that the invasion to "disarm Iraq...is right, it is lawful, and it is in Australia’s national interest." He later said that the decision to go into Iraq was the most difficult he made as Prime Minister. In response to the Australian participation in the invasion, there were large-scale protests in Australian cities during March 2003, and Prime Minister Howard was repeatedly heckled from the public gallery of Parliament House. Opinion polls showed that opposition to the war without UN backing was as high as 92 per cent in January 2003 (before the invasion) but this opposition dropped to 48 per cent in the week following the invasion. When it was reported that that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, 70% of Australians believed John Howard misled them, although most believed he did so unintentionally. Howard remained preferred prime-minister over opposition leader, Simon Crean, and his approval dropped compared to before the war.
Throughout 2002 and 2003 Howard had increased his opinion poll lead over Labor leader, Simon Crean. In December 2003, Crean resigned after losing party support and Mark Latham was elected leader. Howard called an election for 9 October 2004. While the government was behind Labor in the opinion polls, Howard himself had a large lead over Latham as preferred Prime Minister. In the lead up to the election, Howard again did not commit to serving a full term. Howard campaigned on the theme of trust, asking: "Who do you trust to keep the economy strong, and protect family living standards? Who do you trust to keep interest rates low?"Howard attacked Latham's economic record as Mayor of Liverpool City Council and attacked Labor's economic history saying: "It is an historic fact that interest rates have always gone up under Labor governments over the last 30 years, because Labor governments spend more than they collect and drive budgets into deficit ... So it will be with a Latham Labor government... I will guarantee that interest rates are always going to be lower under a Coalition government." The election resulted in an increased Coalition majority in the House of Representatives and the first, albeit slim, government majority in the Senate since 1981. For the second time since becoming Prime Minister, Howard had to go to preferences in order to win another term in his own seat winning 53.3 percent of the two-party preferred vote. On 21 December 2004, Howard became the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.
Fourth term
In 2006, with the government now controlling both houses of parliament for the first time since the Fraser government, industrial relations changes were enacted. Named “WorkChoices” and championed by Howard, they were intended to fundamentally change the employer-employee relationship. The changes were opposed by an effective trade union campaign and antipathy within the electorate. WorkChoices was subsequently seen as a major factor in the government’s 2007 election loss.
In April 2006, the government announced it had completely paid off the last of $96 billion of Commonwealth net debt inherited when it came to power in 1996. Economists generally welcomed the news, while cautioning that some level of debt was not necessarily bad, and that some of the debt had been transferred to the private sector. By 2007, Howard had been in office for 11 of the 15 years of consecutive annual growth enjoyed by the Australian economy. Unemployment had fallen from 8.1%. at the start of his term to 4.1% in 2007. Howard often cited economic management as a strong point of the government, and during his Prime Ministership, opinion polling consistently showed that a majority of the electorate thought his government were better to handle the economy than the Opposition. In the lead up to the Federal election, Howard came under increasing criticism over growing inflationary, skills and productivity pressures in the national economy.
In August 2007, the Howard government announced the Northern Territory National Emergency Response. This package of revisions to welfare provisions, law enforcement and other measures was advanced as a plan for addressing child abuse in Aboriginal Northern Territory communities that had been highlighted in the June 2007 "Little Children are Sacred" report. The plan was criticised by the report's authors for not incorporating any of the report's recommendations. Some aboriginal activists such as Noel Pearson provided qualified support for the intervention. Commentators noted the approaching November federal election, suggesting that the intervention was an attempt at "wedge politics" and an appeal to middle class non-Aboriginal voters concerned with child abuse and racial issues.
Howard criticised the Labor opposition for "deep tensions within [...] regarding the American alliance". In February 2007, referring to the US presidential contest, Howard claimed that Democratic nomination candidate Barack Obama's stance on the war would encourage terrorism in Iraq.
In July 2006, it was alleged that a deal had been struck with Peter Costello in 1994 with Ian McLachlan present, that if the Liberal party were to win the next election, Howard would serve one and a half terms of office and then allow Costello to take over. Howard denied that this constituted a deal, yet Costello and McLachlan insisted it did; and there were calls for Costello to either challenge or quit. Citing strong party room support for him as leader, Howard stated later that month that he would remain to contest the 2007 election. Six weeks before the election, Howard said that, if elected, he would stand down during the next term, and anointed Costello as his successor. Peter Costello commented, in 2007 whilst still government that "The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms of interest rates and inflation... he had not been a great reformer," and questioned Howard's account of his conflicts with the Prime Minister Fraser.
The Coalition trailed Labor in opinion polls from mid-2006 onward, but Howard still consistently led Labor leader Kim Beazley on the question of preferred Prime Minister—and was even described as a "revolutionary" in his opposition to unionism. In December 2006, after Kevin Rudd became Labor leader, the two-party preferred deficit widened even further and Rudd swiftly overtook Howard as preferred Prime Minister. Howard chaired APEC Australia 2007, culminating in the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Sydney during September. The meeting was at times overshadowed by further leadership speculation following further poor poll results.
2007 election defeat
On 14 October, Howard announced a 24 November election. The Coalition had been trailing Labor in the polls since the Labor party elected Kevin Rudd as leader in late 2006. Howard and his Coalition government were defeated in the election, suffering a 23-seat swing to Labor. That evening, Howard conceded the likelihood that he had lost his seat of Bennelong to former journalist Maxine McKew. The final tally showed McKew won 44,685 votes (51.4 percent) to Howard's 42,251 (48.6 percent). Howard told a former colleague that losing Bennelong was a "silver lining in the thunder cloud of defeat" as it spared him the ignominy of opposition. He remained in office as caretaker Prime Minister until the formal swearing in of Rudd's government on 3 December. Howard is the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce, to lose his seat in an election.
After the election loss, Costello declined to accept the role of leader of the opposition, and Brendan Nelson was elected as leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party.
Federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane said "it was the failure of Kim Beazley's leadership that had masked voter concerns about Howard". Media analysis of The Australian Election Study, a postal survey of 1873 voters during the 2007 poll, found that although respondents respected Howard and thought he had won the 6-week election campaign, Howard was considered "at odds with public opinion on cut-through issues", his opponent had achieved the highest "likeability" rating in the survey's 20-year history, and a majority had decided their voting intention prior to the election campaign.
After politics
In January 2008, John Howard signed with a prominent speaking agency called the Washington Speakers Bureau, joining Tony Blair, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and others. He will be available for two speeches, Leadership in the New Century and The Global Economic Future.
In a 2009 poll, he was voted as Australia's favorite prime minister since World War II.
Honours
by President George W. Bush]]
- Appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours list "for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, particularly as Prime Minister and through contributions to economic and social policy reform, fostering and promoting Australia's interests internationally, and the development of significant philanthropic links between the business sector, arts and charitable organisations."
- Awarded the Centenary Medal in January 2001
- Awarded the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom on 13 January 2009 by President George W. Bush.
- Awarded the Star of the Solomon Islands together with Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on 15 June 2005 for their respective roles in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands. This award allows him to use the post-nominal letters "SSI".
- Irving Kristol Award, the highest award of the American Enterprise Institute, 3 January 2008
- Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service in Government, 6 April 2008
- Howard also received the Woodrow Wilson Award from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the U.S. Smithsonian Institution on 22 August 2005 in Sydney.
- Received honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in December 2008 for "outstanding statesmanship and leading role on the world stage in promoting democracy and combating international terrorism" and his "remarkable understanding of, and exceptional support for, the State of Israel and his deep friendship with the Australian Jewish community".
- B'nai B'rith International bestowed its Presidential Gold Medal on Howard in 2006.
- Honourary doctorate from Bond University, 14 February 2009
See also
Bibliography
Further reading
Publications
- Errington, Wayne; Van Onselen, Peter (2007). John Winston Howard: The Biography. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522853346
Websites
External links
- National Archives of Australia
- , the first Australian Prime Minister to do so since John Curtin in 1944.
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