John Howard Biography

John Howard born John Winston Howard, OM, AC is an Australian former politician. He served as the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister, behind only Sir Robert Menzies, who was in office for over 18 years. He is also the oldest living former Australian Prime Minister, as of  2019. He was the leader of the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989 and from 1995 to 2007.

John Howard Age

John Winston Howard was born in Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia on 26 July 1939. He is 79 years as of 2018.

John Howard Family

John Winston Howard was born in Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia as the fourth son of Mona and Lyall Howard. His older brothers were Stanley (1926–2014), Walter (b. 1929), and Robert (b. 1936). Lyall Howard was an admirer of Winston Churchill. Howard’s ancestors were English, Scottish, and Irish.

He was raised 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 Howard worked as a boy. His father, Lyall Howard died in 1955 when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of him and his elder brothers.

In his youth, he suffered a hearing impairment 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 Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys’ High School. He 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 union.

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. After gaining his Leaving Certificate, he studied law at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1961. Later he began working for the firm of Stephen Jaques and Stephen as a junior solicitor.

In 1964, he took a trip around the world, visiting Britain, Europe, Israel, India, and Singapore. After returning to Sydney in 1965, he began working for Clayton Utz, but “lacked the university grades and the social connections to be on track for a partnership”. He subsequently moved to a smaller firm, which became Truman, Nelson and Howard after he was made a partner.

John Howard Wife

He is still a married man. He married fellow Liberal Party member Janette Parker in 1971, with whom he had three children: Melanie (born 1974), Tim (born 1977) and Richard (born 1980).

John Howard Net Worth

John is an Australian former renowned politician who also served as the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. He has an estimated net worth is still under review.

John Howard Career

Early career, 1957–77

Howard joined the Liberal Party in 1957. He was a member of the party’s New South Wales state executive and served as federal president of the Young Liberals (the party youth organization) from 1962 to 1964. He 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, he acted as campaign manager for Tom Hughes in his local seat of Parkes. Hughes went on to defeat the 20-year Labor incumbent, Les Haylen. In mid-1964, Howard travelled to London to work and travel for a period. He volunteered for the Conservative Party in the electorate of Holborn and St Pancras South at the 1964 UK general election.

In 1967, with the support of party power brokers John Carrick and Eric Willis, he was endorsed as a candidate for the marginal suburban state seat of Drummoyne, held by Labor’s Reg Coady. His 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 narrowly lost to Coady, despite campaigning vigorously. John and his mother subsequently returned to Earlwood, moving to a house on the same street where he grew up.

At the 1974 federal election, he successfully contested the Division of Bennelong, located in suburban Sydney. The election saw the return of the Gough Whitlam-led Labor government. He supported Malcolm Fraser for the leadership of the Liberal Party against Billy Snedden following the 1974 election. When Fraser won office at the 1975 federal election, 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.

Prime Minister (1996–2007)

1996 election

The first term, 1996–98

By the time the writs were issued for the 1996 election, the Coalition had been well ahead of Labor in opinion polls for over a year. The consensus of most opinion polls was that Howard would be the next prime minister.

With the support of many traditionally Labor voters—dubbed “Howard battlers”—Howard and the Liberal-National Coalition swept to power on the back of a 29-seat swing. This was the second-worst defeat of an incumbent government since Federation. The Coalition only picked up a five percent swing, which is usually not enough to cause a change of government. However, the Coalition took 13 seats off Labor in New South Wales, and won all but two seats in Queensland.

The Liberals actually won a majority in their own right with 75 seats, the most that the party had ever won. It was only the third time (the others being 1975 and 1977) that the main non-Labor party has been even theoretically able to govern alone since the Coalition’s formation. Nevertheless, Howard kept the Nationals in his government.

Howard entered office with a 45-seat majority—the second-biggest majority in Australian history, only behind Fraser’s 55-seat majority in 1975. At the age of 56, he was sworn in as prime minister on 11 March 1996, ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. He departed from tradition and made his primary residence Kirribilli House in Sydney rather than The Lodge in Canberra.

Early in the term, he 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 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 from the Brisbane area—was criticized in the press as an endorsement of her views. When Hanson had made derogatory statements about minorities, Howard not only canceled her Liberal endorsement but declared she would not be allowed to sit as a Liberal if elected. Howard repudiated Hanson’s views seven months after her maiden speech.

Following the Wik Decision of the High Court in 1996, the Howard government moved swiftly to legislate limitations on its possible implications through the so-called Ten-Point Plan.

From 1997, Howard spearheaded the Coalition push to introduce a Goods and Services Tax(GST) at the 1998 election. Before winning the Prime Ministership, Howard said that he considered the Coalition’s defeat in 1993 to be a rejection of the GST, and as a result, it would “never ever” be part of Coalition policy. A long-held conviction of Howard’s, his tax reform package was credited with “breaking the circuit” of party morale-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. 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.

Howard called a snap election for October 1998, three months sooner than required. The Coalition actually lost the national two-party preferred vote to Labor, suffering a 14-seat swing. However, the uneven nature of the swing allowed Howard to win a second term in government, with a considerably reduced majority (from 45 seats to 12). He himself finished just short of a majority on the first count in his own seat, and was only assured of reelection on the ninth count. He ultimately finished with a fairly comfortable 56 percent of the two-party preferred vote.

The second term, 1998–2001

In 1998, Howard convened a Constitutional Convention which decided in principle that Australia should become a Republic. At the convention, he confirmed himself as a monarchist and said that of the Republican options, he preferred the minimalist model. Howard outlined his support for retaining the Australian constitutional monarchy. Despite opinion polls suggesting Australians favored a republic, a 1999 referendum rejected the model chosen by the convention.

Throughout his prime-ministership, he was resolute in his refusal to provide a parliamentary “apology” to Indigenous Australians as recommended by the 1997 “Bringing Them Home” Report. Howard made a personal apology before the release of the report.

In 1999 he negotiated a “Motion of Reconciliation” with Aboriginal Senator Aden Ridgeway. Eschewing use of the word “sorry”, the motion recognised mistreatment of Aborigines as the “most blemished chapter” in Australia’s history; offered “deep and sincere regret” for past injustices. Following his 2007 loss of the prime ministership, John 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.

The government announced a series of policy reversals and softenings which boosted the government’s fortunes, as did news that the economy had avoided recession. The government’s position on “border protection”, in particular, the Tampa affair where he refused the landing of asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian freighter, consolidated the improving polls for the government, as did the 11 September 2001 attacks. He also led the government to victory in the 2001 federal election with an increased majority.

The third term, 2001–04

Howard had first met US President George W. Bush in the days before the 11 September terrorist attacks and was in Washington the morning of the attacks. In response to the attacks, he invoked the ANZUS Treaty. In October 2001, he committed Australian military personnel to the War in Afghanistan despite widespread opposition.

Howard developed a strong personal relationship with the President, and they shared often similar ideological positions – including on the role of the United States in world affairs and their approach to the “War on Terror”. In May 2003, he 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 April 2002, John Howard was the first Australian prime minister to attend a royal funeral, that of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. In October he responded to the 2002 Bali bombing with calls for solidarity. Howard re-dedicated his government to the “War on Terror”.

The fourth term, 2004–07

In 2006, with the government now controlling both houses of parliament for the first time since the Fraser era, industrial relations changes were enacted. Named “WorkChoices” and championed by Howard, they were intended to fundamentally change the employer-employee relationship. Opposed by a broad 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. By 2007, he had been in office for 11 of the 15 years of consecutive annual growth for the Australian economy. Unemployment had fallen from 8.1% at the start of his term to 4.1% in 2007, and average weekly earnings grew 24.4% in real terms. 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.

2007 election

Leading up to the 24 November election, the Coalition had been behind Labor in the polls for almost two years, a margin that grew even larger after Rudd became opposition leader. In the election, Howard and his government were defeated, suffering a 23-seat swing to Labor, which was almost as large as the 29-seat swing that propelled him to power in 1996. John Howard lost his seat of Bennelong to former journalist Maxine McKew by 44,685 votes (51.4 percent) to Howard’s 42,251 (48.6 percent). The latest redistribution placed Bennelong right on the edge of seats Labor needed to win in order to make Rudd Prime Minister. The ABC actually listed Bennelong as a Labor gain on election night.

However, the final result remained in doubt for a few days after the election. The final tally indicated that McKew defeated Howard on the 14th count due to a large flow of Green preferences to her; 3,793 (78.84 percent) of Green voters listed McKew as their second preference. Howard is the second Australian prime minister, after Stanley Bruce, to lose his seat in an election. He remained in office as caretaker prime minister until the formal swearing-in of Rudd’s government on 3 December.

Media analysis of The Australian Election Study, a postal survey of 1,873 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 before the election campaign.

John Howard Books

Books

• Prime Minister John Howard (2007). “Contributor”. Laugh Even Louder!. By Camp Quality. Gosford, New South Wales: Scholastic Australia Pty Limited. ISBN 978-1-74169-022-4.
• Howard, John (2010). Lazarus rising: a personal and political autobiography.
• — (2014). The Menzies era.

Some of the Works about Howard and his times

• Barnett, David; Goward, Pru (1997), John Howard, Prime Minister, Viking, ISBN 0-670-87389-6
• Bell, Stephen (2004), Australia’s Money Mandarins, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-83990-4
• Boucher, Geoff; Sharpe, Matthew (2008), The Times Will Suit Them: Postmodern Conservatism in Australia, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-1-74175-624-1
• Cater, Nick (2006), The Howard Factor, Melbourne University Publishing, ISBN 0-522-85284-X
• Clune, David (2002), “Back to the future?: the November 2001 Federal election”, Australasian Parliamentary Review, 17 (1): 3–16, ISSN 1447-9125
• Clune, David (2005), “Howard at the crossroads?: the October 2004 Federal Election”, Australasian Parliamentary Review, 20(1): 3–20, ISSN 1447-9125
• Errington, Wayne; Van Onselen, Peter (2007), John Winston Howard: The Biography, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, ISBN 978-0-522-85334-6
• Garran, Robert (2004), True Believer: John Howard, George Bush and the American Alliance, Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1-74114-418-3
• Grattan, Michelle (2000), ‘John Winston Howard’, in Michelle Grattan (ed.), Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, Pages 436–463. ISBN 1-86436-756-3
• Gulmanelli, Stefano. “John Howard and the ‘Anglospherist’ reshaping of Australia.” Australian Journal of Political Science 49#4 (2014): 581–595.