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John Howard

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Political People

   John Winston Howard
   John Howard
     __________________________________________________________________

   25th Prime Minister of Australia
   Incumbent
   Assumed office
   11 March 1996
   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), an Australian politician, is
   currently the Prime Minister of Australia. He is the second-longest
   serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies. He
   previously served as Treasurer in Malcolm Fraser's government from
   1977–1983 and was Leader of the Liberal Party from 1985–1989. 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. His government has been subsequently re-elected in the
   elections of 1998, 2001 and 2004. After his victory in 2004, his
   government gained control of both houses of the Parliament from July
   2005.

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. 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 (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. 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. 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.

   In 1967 he was endorsed as candidate for the suburban 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 continued living at home until 1971 when he married fellow
   Liberal Party member Janette Parker, with whom he has three children.
   Although Janette has maintained a low profile during her husband's
   prime ministership — possibly in part due to health problemsbut also to
   her own expressed preference —she is widely seen as having a major
   influence on his decision making.

   Howard's next attempt to enter parliament was at a Federal level and
   was successful. He was elected to the House of Representatives as the
   Member of Parliament for the Sydney suburban seat of Bennelong at the
   Federal election in May 1974. 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". 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
   moderate and pragmatic Fraser, who would not embark on these steps. 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. 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 said that "the times will suit me." In addition to his economic
   views, he became known as a strong social conservative, supporting the
   nuclear family against the so-called "permissive society", and was also
   sceptical of the promotion of multiculturalism at the expense of a
   shared national identity. 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. 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. 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. 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.

   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" (roughly equivalent 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 it
   was good that the years of " political correctness" were finally over.
   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. Hanson was elected as an independent member and used her
   first speech to Parliament to attack multiculturalism and
   reconciliation, alleging that "we are in danger of being swamped by
   Asians". She later formed the One Nation political party.

First term: 1996–1998

   John Howard in the USA in 1997
   Enlarge
   John Howard in the USA in 1997

   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, infrastructure investment was scaled down, 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
   some observers have claimed was simply the payoff from Keating's
   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 coordinating
   action by the state governments to heavily restrict the private
   ownership of semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and
   pump-action shotguns. This action and an accompanying "gun buy-back
   scheme" were 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 more controversial 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 the Goods and Services
   Tax (GST; 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 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 militia, 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 fresh food such
   as fruit and vegetables. 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 deposit, increasing the
   borrowing limit of applicants by approximately $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.

   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". This brought censure from the
   government of Norway at the United Nations as failure to meet
   obligations to distressed mariners under international law. The
   September 11 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 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 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.

   Australian opinion was deeply divided on the war and large public
   protests against the war 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 and due diligence was questioned when no
   weapons of mass destruction were discovered 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.

   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 Greens and Democrats opposed the amendment.

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 large 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 as a proportion of household income
   were higher than at the peak of interest rates during the 1980s.

   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.
   Due to this approach they severely lost credibility in the campaign,
   which was compounded by Latham's publicity stunt of signing a guarantee
   stating that interest rates would not rise under a Latham government,
   when it was common knowledge at the time that monetary policy was
   controlled by the Reserve Bank.

   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

   John Howard with U.S. President George W. Bush on 16 May 2006, during
   Howard's seventh official visit to the White House as Prime Minister.
   From left to right: the Prime Minister's wife Janette Howard, U.S.
   First Lady Laura Bush, Howard, and Bush.
   Enlarge
   John Howard with U.S. President George W. Bush on 16 May 2006, during
   Howard's seventh official visit to the White House as Prime Minister.
   From left to right: the Prime Minister's wife Janette Howard, U.S.
   First Lady Laura Bush, Howard, and Bush.

   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 51.8% government-owned telecommunications
       company Telstra;
     * Industrial relations reforms;
     * Voluntary Student Unionism which removed compulsory union fees at
       universities.

   Overruled Legislation:
     * ACT Civil Unions Act, on the grounds that the same-sex civil unions
       undermined the Marriage Act.

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

   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. On 14 April 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.

   In October 2005, the Volcker Inquiry into the United Nations
   Oil-for-Food Programme revealed that Australian company AWB Ltd had
   paid the single largest illicit "kickback" to the Iraq regime. 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. Howard rejected criticisms that the
   Inquiry Terms of Reference were too narrow (i.e. did not permit
   adequate investigation into the role played by Government Ministers and
   their delegates).

   As of 2 March 2006, Howard has been in office 10 years. In this time
   his popularity has been seemingly undented. His approval rating, though
   showing slight ups and downs, remain steadily above 50%. Howard
   explains this through his frequently repeated quote, "My proof is in my
   record. This has seen Australia with low inflation, low interest rates,
   low unemployment, higher wages and a total elimination of government
   debt". 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 Saint
   Petersburg, Russia—though Australia is not part of the G8—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. 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. Also at this time Howard faced
   backbench revolt from small numbers of his own party demanding that
   reforms be made. On 2 June it was revealed that Cornelia Rau had been
   identified by the department as an Australian citizen three months
   prior to her final release from detention. On 9 June 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. 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 civil rights raised by
   the Australian National University as well as concerns over the speed
   of the legislation's passage through parliament , he later refused to
   sign off on a revised version of the legislation, becoming the only
   State and Territorial leader not to sign. The House of Representatives
   passed the anti-terrorism legislation which was 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 the Australian Security
   Intelligence Organisation (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 demonstrated that no further
   legislation was needed as even the current legislation was sufficient
   to allow ASIO and the Australian Federal Police 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 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.
   Approximately 560,000 people turned out at the protests, largely
   organised by various unions and concerned community organisations with
   the help of Labor and the Greens. These laws were passed without
   substantial change.

Unfinished business

   In late 2006, with a federal election on the horizon, some of 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.

Retirement?

   In the leadup to the 2001 election, Howard did not commit to serving a
   full term if he won the election. Instead, he said he would consider
   the question of retirement when he turned 64, which would be in July
   2003. When July 2003 came, he announced that the party was strongly in
   favour of him continuing, so he stayed on.

   In the leadup to the 2004 election, Howard again did not commit to
   serving a full term. In 2006, there was mounting speculation that he
   would retire that year.

   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. It has been
   suggested that these changes may make Bennelong one of the most
   marginal seats in the state with only a 3% majority , however these
   figures have been disputed by political commentators such as Malcolm
   Mackerras , and also Shane Easson of the NSW Labor Party , who argue
   that the impact of the changes will be minimal.

   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. Mr. McLachlan's version
   of the conversation is that Mr Howard said something like, "I can't
   guarantee this to you Peter, but my intention is not to hang around
   forever. If I win, I'll serve two terms and hand over to you." 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.

   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.

Honours

     * Centenary Medal In January 2001
     * The Star of the Solomon Islands together with Helen Clark as Prime
       Minister of New Zealand on 15th of June 2005 for their respective
       roles in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands.

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