Prison reformer, born in London, UK. While travelling in Europe he was captured by the French, and spent some time in prison at Brest. In 1773 he became high sheriff for Bedfordshire, and began a series of tours in which he investigated the condition of prisons and prisoners. As a result, two acts were passed in 1774, one providing for fixed salaries to jailers, and the other enforcing cleanliness. He died of typhus, contracted while visiting a military hospital in Kherson, Russia. The Howard League for Penal Reform, founded in 1866, is named after him.
John Winston Howard|
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| 25th Prime Minister of Australia | |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | |
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In office since 11 March 1996 |
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| Preceded by | Paul Keating |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
| Born |
26 July 1939 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | Janette Howard |
| Religion | Anglican (Christianity) |
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), Australian politician, is currently the Prime Minister of Australia. Elected again as Leader in 1995, Howard became the 25th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating incumbent Paul Keating in the election of 2 March 1996.
Early life
Howard grew up in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood. His father, Lyell Howard, and his paternal grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. Lyell Howard died during John's teenage years, leaving his mother to take care of John (or "Jack" as he was known in the family) and his three brothers.
Howard suffered from a hearing impairment in his youth, and this has left him with a slight speech impediment, something that he shares with namesake Winston Churchill.
Howard attended the publicly funded state schools Earlwood Public School and Canterbury Boys' High School. Howard joined the Liberal Party in 1957.
Rising politician
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.
During this period Howard was (and remains) a supporter of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War . 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 continued living at home until 1971 when he married fellow Liberal Party member Janette Parker, with whom he has three children.
Howard's next attempt to enter parliament was at a Federal level and was successful. When Malcolm Fraser's 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, for which appointment he became known as "the boy Treasurer".
During his period as Treasurer, Howard became a staunch adherent of Thatcherism (usually known as "economic rationalism" in Australia). In 1982 Howard nearly resigned in protest at Fraser's big-spending pre-election budget. As Federal Treasurer, John Howard presided over a period of very high interest rates, peaking at 22% on 8 April 1982 (see: RBA: Bulletin Statistical Tables). After the 1983 defeat of the Fraser Government, Howard was attacked by the incoming Hawke government for supposedly 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. 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. This put Peacock in an untenable position and he resigned, leaving Howard to take the leadership unopposed.
Howard said that "the times will suit me." Howard is strongly opposed to gay marriage, or recognising "watered down" same sex civil unions. In 1985, in an interview he gave with The Age published on July 30, Howard stated that he (like many other conservatives at the time) was opposed to economic sanctions against the apartheid government of South Africa.
During 1985 and 1986, with unemployment rising and the economy stagnant, Howard appeared to be making ground on the government. However, 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.
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. Howard himself 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. 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. 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.
Howard's principal pollster in each of his successful election campaigns has been Mark Textor.
Prime Minister
The 1996 election campaign
Howard won over many traditional Labor voters, sometimes called the "Howard battlers" , 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's lukewarm response was variously interpreted as either indicating tacit support for Hanson's sentiments, or as a disingenuous attempt to harness their popularity among certain segments of the electorate.
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. Howard responded by coordinating action by the state governments to heavily restrict the private ownership of semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns.
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.
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 1998 election campaign
The 1998 election campaign was dominated by two issues. a broad-based value-added tax), which Howard had several years earlier said he would "never, ever" introduce;
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.
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.
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. 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.
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 fresh food such as fruit and vegetables.
Most of the resentment for the GST fell on the Democrats, but the Howard government was trailing in the polls in 2001.
John Howard's government also considered the issue of a national apology to Aboriginal Australians for their treatment by previous generations following the European settlement of the country.
Howard refrained from making a national apology (although all State and Territory Governments did so) and instead personally expressed "deep sorrow" while maintaining that "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies."
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 Australian special forces and spoke strongly of the need for Australia to "decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come".
The government introduced tough "border protection" legislation. 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.
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.
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. Following the October 2002 Bali bombing, Howard placed a renewed emphasis on his government's approach to national security.
In March 2003, Howard joined the United Kingdom 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. 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.
On Anzac Day 2004, Howard made a surprise visit to Australian defence personnel in Iraq.
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.
In August 2004, Howard's proposed amendment to the Marriage Act—to ban foreign and domestic same-sex unions from being recognised as marriages within Australia—was passed with the support of the Australian Labor Party, although several Labor Left MPs had expressed their opposition to the amendment, including the Premier of Western Australia Dr. Geoff Gallop.
The 2004 election campaign
On 29 August 2004, Howard called an election for 9 October. 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.
A notable aspect of the campaign was the absence of retaliatory "mudslinging" from the Labor Party against the various attacks on Latham's credibility, due to his rather notorious past, possibly to help promote the image of Latham as a reformed and professional man.
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, but failing to tackle long-term issues such as infrastructure constraints, climate change and a national skills shortage.
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.
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.
On 22 February 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. Howard, resisting calls for a Royal Commission, subsequently established a Commission of Inquiry under Terence Cole QC to determine if Australian companies had broken the law.
As of 2 March 2006, Howard has been in office 10 years. As a testament to the Howard government's perceived economic credentials, Australian Treasurer Peter Costello was asked in June 2006 to be the special guest of the G8 Finance Minister's Summit in St. Petersberg, Russia—an organisation Australia is not a part of—to advise these nations on good governance and public finance.
Throughout the first half of 2005, the Howard government faced increasing pressure regarding the controversial mandatory detention program. Also at this time Howard faced backbench revolt from small numbers of his own party demanding that reforms be made.
In mid 2005, John Howard and his cabinet began private discussions of new anti-terror legislation which includes modification to the Crimes Act 1914.
On 2 November 2005 Howard held a press conference to announce that he had received information from police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) that indicated an imminent terrorist attack in Australia.
On Tuesday 15 November protest rallies were held to protest against the work relations laws around the country, in opposition to the Howard government’s planned changes to industrial relations laws.
Unfinished business
In late 2006, with a federal election on the horizon, the issues facing the Howard government are the AWB Iraq bribes scandal, Australia's response to global warming, a national skills shortage and his govenment's Work Choices industrial relations legislation.
While the AWB's bribes in Iraq have significantly damaged the government's reputation, each other major election issue has a significant connection to the Opposition's primarily working-class support base through either providing political support through the Coalition or providing more employment opportunities primarily in the form of increased uranium mining.
In the leadup to the 2001 election, Howard did not commit to serving a full term if he won the election.
In the leadup to the 2004 election, Howard again did not commit to serving a full term.
In July 2006, as part of a redistribution of New South Wales electoral divisions, a proposal was made to change the boundaries of Howard's electorate of Bennelong on Sydney's Lower North Shore.
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.
The impasse was resolved at the end of July when Howard, again citing strong party room support for him as leader, stated that he would remain to contest the 2007/2008 election, and that he and Costello would remain in their current roles. Costello declared that he would not be seeking the top position in the Liberal Party while Howard was standing as its leader, saying on The 7.30 Report he would be handing down the 2007 Budget.
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