John Howard - his journey and his legacy

As Australians grew more confident, they became increasingly able to embrace the economic reforms of his government. His conservatism on social issues also re-assured moral conservatives, and in some ways allowed him to be forgiven for his economic policies. And, on the other hand many liberals criticised Howard for big-government conservatism, which involved high taxes and many hand-outs to the middle class.

That combination of social conservativism and economic rationalism has made it possible for Howard to appeal to a variety of people - but it has also made him the bête noire of the Australian left. The special hatred they have reserved for him has grown during his tenure as he made decisions which they have strongly opposed, including economic reforms, the Tampa, Australia’s involvement in Iraq, a healthy scepticism of climate change, refusing to say sorry to the Aborigines and the banning of gay marriage.

But Howard not only pursued policies which the left despised. He also supported the right’s intellectual polemics in the culture wars and appealed to the ordinary Australian in a way which frustrated the cultural left, particularly around election time. For all these reasons, Howard has, for the left, come to symbolise everything that they find is despicable about Australia, to the point where many of them would have slightly preferred Peter Costello, a founding member of the H.R. Nicholls Society, to have instead become prime minister.

Howard’s legacy

What then is Howard’s legacy? Evidently he will be judged by his years as prime minister: a period of continuing economic growth, budget surpluses, low interest rates and real wages growth. Some of the economic reforms were politically courageous, in particular the GST, the tax reform that voters had so strongly resisted in 1993.

While his Government deserves some of the credit for its economic successes, it is also true that it was substantially assisted by other factors such as the ongoing effects of Labor’s microeconomic reforms, the business cycle and, in the second half of their years in office, an ongoing resources boom.

In relation to social policies, Howard and his government were conservative. Howard’s refusal to say sorry to Australia’s Indigenous peoples earned him many critics. The political opportunism and associated tough immigration line taken in late 2001 also upset many in the left. The second Iraq war turned out to be a mistake; however, no Australian troops were killed in enemy combat.

On the other hand, Howard was often compassionate. In tragedies such as the Port Arthur Massacre, September 11 and the tsunami, Howard was always able to bring the nation together in times of sorrow. He also introduced gun control laws and allowed for a referendum to be held on the republic, although he later campaigned against the “yes” vote.

For all these reasons the Howard government will probably be remembered as being a good government, but not an excellent one. Like all governments, it had its good points and its bad points. And, overall it probably did more good than harm.

While history will judge Howard to have been a fairly good prime minister, it will probably also judge him to be the Liberal party’s equivalent of Bob Hawke. That is, although he was a popular prime minister who won four successive elections, Howard, like Hawke, proved unable to accept when the time to retire gracefully had come. Like Hawke, Howard stayed about a year too long in office, and consequently suffered the fate of being forcefully removed from office. In spite of this, Howard was liked and respected by most Australians and served as prime minister for 11½ years. And that is an achievement that any political leader in Australia can be tremendously proud of.

Finally, Howard should not feel bitter about his election loss. The Australian people did make him one of the nation’s longest-serving prime ministers by voting for him and his party on four separate occasions. He is one of the very few prime ministers to serve for more than a decade, and in this sense he has been truly lucky. He was also lucky to implement many of the reforms he always advocated, and even won a Senate majority in his last term. In the end, the Australian people gave John Howard almost everything that a politician in Australia could hope for.

I wish Mr Howard all the best in all of his future endeavours.