John Howard

John Winston Howard
Date of birth	26 July 1939
Wife	Janette Howard
Party	Liberal Party of Australia
Prime Minister
From	11 March 1996
To
Succeeded	Paul Keating
Preceded	—
Liberal Party leader
From	1995
To
Succeeded	Alexander Downer
Preceded	—

John Winston Howard is the current Prime Minister of Australia, and leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. He has been Prime Minister since the Liberal Party won a majority in the House of Representatives at the general election in 1996 (in coalition with the smaller National Party), succeeding Paul Keating.

John Howard married Janette Parker in 1971, and they have a daughter and two sons.

Political life

Howard had been a parliamentarian for 22 years before becoming the Prime Minister, and for 21 of those years he was on the ministerial benches, including roles as Treasurer and Opposition Leader.

During his term as Prime Minister, he has tightened controls on firearms, begun privatisation of the national communications provider, Telstra, introduced a 10% Goods and services tax to replace various other taxes, and brought in new industrial relations laws that alter some protections for employees in small businesses. Although opposed to the idea, he also introduced a referendum on Australia becoming a republic, which was defeated.

Howard has been very supportive of the war in Iraq, and Australia has been a steadfast supporter of the coalition of the willing, although this has also brought much opposition against him from the liberal media, many of whom supported the war in the first place.

Recent political controversies

The resignation of Santo Santoro as Minister of Ageing following his public admission to share trading in breach of Howard's Ministerial Code of Conduct has resulted in adverse publicity to Howard. The week prior to the resignation Howard had publicly supported the former Minister when he had admitted to one breach of the code. Santoro admitted a week later that he had committed a further 72 breaches which resulted in the withdrawal of support from the Prime Minister. Bob Quinn, the former leader of the opposition in the Queensland State Parliament is the current front-runner for the Senate seat vacated by the sudden resignation of Mr Santoro.

The prosecution of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay continues to be a political issue for Howard.

Other controversies in mid 2007 centred around such issues as the Federal Government's desire to take control of what was originally state rights to decide upon water usage in the Murray-Darling River System, the taking over of direct funding of a state hospital in Tasmania, and stepping in to alleviate problems in some aboriginal communities. The arrest and eventual charging of Dr Haneef on suspicion of consorting with terrorists led to the eventual dropping of charges, allowing Dr Haneef to return to his native India. Questions remained regarding the governments handling of the case, and it has been reported in September that applications from overseas doctors seeking to work in Australia have fallen 80% in the months since the incident [1].

The recent decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates has also caused problems for Howard, who has been under fire for advertisements in which he featured in 2004, where it was claimed that his government would keep interest rates at "record lows". He has since attempted to disown the advertisements.

The popularity of Howard has been at an all-time low since the opposition has been headed by Kevin Rudd although it seems as 2007 progresses this gap in the polls has lessened slightly.

John Howard hosted the 2007 APEC meeting in Sydney. The security measures that were taken were criticized domestically, and included a 3 mile security fence in Sydney's Central Business District, and a call for Sydneysiders to leave the city over the APEC weekend.

Future

Howard has pledged to resign during his next term if he is re-elected at the federal election to be held on 24 November.

Sources

• National Museum of Australia, John Howard

Australian Prime Ministers
Edmund Barton (1901) Alfred Deakin (1903, 1905, and 1909) John Watson (1904) George Reid (1904) Andrew Fisher (1908, 1910, and 1914) Joseph Cook (1913) William Hughes (1915)	Stanley Bruce (1923) James Scullin (1929) Joseph Lyons (1932) Earle Page (1939) Robert Menzies (1939 and 1949) Arthur Fadden (1941) John Curtin (1941)	Francis Forde (1945) Joseph Chifley (1945) Harold Holt (1966) John McEwen (1967) John Gorton (1968) William McMahon (1971) Gough Whitlam (1972)	Malcolm Fraser (1975) Robert Hawke (1983) Paul Keating (1991) John Howard (1996) Kevin Rudd (2007)