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| Birth Name(s) : John Howard |
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Full John Howard Biography
John Winston Howard (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, and was leader of the Liberal Party of Australia for over 16 years.
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.
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.
Soon after Howard became Opposition Leader, the Coalition surged to a large lead over Labor in nearly all polls. More ominously for Labor, Howard quickly overtook Keating as preferred Prime Minister--a rare feat for an Opposition Leader.
When asked whether he would follow the failed John Hewson tax model and introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST), Howard replied:
Winning over many traditional Labor voters, a group termed the "Howard battlers", Howard scored a sweeping victory at the 1996 elections, scoring a 26-seat swing--the second-largest defeat of an incumbent government since Federation. At the age of 56, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 11 March 1996, ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition.
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 Independents. The Senate modified 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 Wik 10 Point Plan, giving extinguishment of native title on pastoral leases.
The seat of Bennelong became home to many Asian immigrants, and in May 2002, Howard retracted his 1988 Asian remarks:
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.
On 15 November 2005, public rallies were held to protest against the industrial relations changes. An estimated 100,000-175,000 people attended rallies in Melbourne and around 300 other meetings and rallies, held concurrently around the country, were also well attended. These meetings were organised by various unions and community organisations with the help of Labor and the Greens.
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.
Since Mohamed Haneef spent 12 days in jail without charges (he was suspected to have supported the perpetrators of the foiled terror attacks in London and Glasgow in July 2007), the anti-terrorism bill and its impact for the separation of powers in a democracy became more publicly discussed. When a judge found insufficient evidence for the charges against Haneef, Minister of Immigration Kevin Andrews withdrew his working visa. While the Howard government unequivocally backed Kevin Andrew's decision, members of the judicial community in Australia raised their concern about the interference of the government in judicial proceedings.
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd pushed for a minimum of three debates between himself and John Howard over the course of the Federal election campaign. Howard, who had been rated poorly by studio audiences at past leadership debates, pressed for a single debate "whether was there or not". On 21 October, Howard took part in a live nationally televised leaders' debate with Rudd. Howard pressed for the Nine Network to abandon it's use of "the worm"; an on-screen graphic used to measure studio audience sentiment. Commentators widely reported Rudd as the victor in the 2007 debate. |
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