First term 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 some 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 picked up a five per cent swing, taking 13 seats away from Labor in New South Wales, and winning 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. Howard departed from tradition and made his primary residence
Kirribilli House in Sydney rather than
The Lodge in Canberra. Early in the term Howard 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 criticised in the press as an endorsement of her views. When Hanson had made derogatory statements about minorities, Howard not only cancelled 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. 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 multiple 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). Howard 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 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. Despite opinion polls suggesting Australians favoured a republic, a
1999 referendum rejected the model chosen by the convention. The new
President of Indonesia,
B.J. Habibie, had some months earlier agreed to grant special autonomy to
Indonesian-occupied East Timor. However, following the receipt of a letter sent by Howard to Habibie suggesting that a referendum be held, Habibie made a snap decision to hold a vote on independence. This referendum on the territory's independence triggered a Howard and Downer orchestrated shift in Australian policy. In September 1999, Howard organised an Australian-led international peace-keeping force to East Timor (
INTERFET), after
pro-Indonesia militia launched a violent "scorched-earth" campaign in retaliation to the referendum's overwhelming vote in favour of independence. The successful mission was widely supported by Australian voters, but the government was criticised for "foreign policy failure" following the violence and collapse of diplomatic relations with Indonesia. By Howard's fourth term, relations with Indonesia had recovered to include counter-terrorism cooperation and Australia's $1bn
Boxing Day Tsunami relief efforts, and were assisted by good relations between Howard and Indonesian president
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Throughout his prime-ministership, Howard 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, Howard 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, 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 Howard refused the landing of asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian freighter, and the
Children Overboard affair where Howard misguided the public by falsy claiming children were being thrown from boats in a presumed ploy to secure rescue, consolidated the improving polls for the government, as did the
11 September 2001 attacks. Howard led the government to victory in the
2001 federal election with an increased majority.
Third term 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, Howard 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, Howard 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, Howard was the first Australian prime minister to attend a royal funeral, that of
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. In October, Howard responded to the
2002 Bali bombing with calls for solidarity. Howard re-dedicated his government to the "war on terror". In March 2003, Australia joined the US-led "
Multinational force in Iraq" in
sending 2,000 troops and naval units to support in the
invasion of Iraq. In response to the Australian participation in the invasion, there were large protests in Australian cities during March 2003, and Prime Minister Howard was heckled from the public gallery of Parliament House. While opinion polls showed that opposition to the war without UN backing was between 48 and 92 per cent, Howard remained preferred prime-minister over the Leader of the Opposition,
Simon Crean, although his approval ratings were lower compared to before the war. Throughout 2002 and 2003, Howard had increased his opinion poll lead over Labor Party leader,
Simon Crean. In December 2003, Crean resigned after losing party support and
Mark Latham was elected leader. Howard called
an election for 9 October 2004. While the government was behind Labor in the opinion polls, Howard himself had a large lead over Latham as preferred prime minister. In the lead up to the election, Howard again did not commit to serving a full term. Howard attacked Latham's economic record as Mayor of
Liverpool City Council and attacked Labor's economic history. The election resulted in a five-seat swing to the Coalition, netting it a majority almost as large as in 1996. It also resulted the first, albeit slim, government majority in the Senate since 1981. For the second time since becoming prime minister, Howard came up short of a majority in the first count for his own seat. He was assured of reelection on the third count, ultimately winning 53.3 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. On 21 December 2004, Howard overtook
Bob Hawke to become the second longest-serving Australian prime minister after
Sir Robert Menzies.
Fourth term at the 2007 APEC Summit 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, Howard 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. In 2006,
Ian McLachlan and
Peter Costello said that under a 1994 deal between Howard and Costello, Howard would serve one and a half terms as prime minister if the Coalition won the next election before stepping aside to allow Costello to take over. Howard denied that this constituted a deal; Citing strong party room support for him as leader, Howard stated later that month that he would remain to contest the 2007 election. Six weeks before the election, Howard indicated he would stand down during the next term, and anointed Costello as his successor. The Coalition trailed Labor in opinion polls from mid-2006 onward, but Howard still consistently led Labor leader
Kim Beazley on the question of preferred prime minister. In December 2006, after
Kevin Rudd became Labor leader, the two-party preferred deficit widened even further and Rudd swiftly overtook Howard as preferred prime minister. Howard chaired
APEC Australia 2007, culminating in the
APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Sydney during September. The meeting was at times overshadowed by further leadership speculation following continued poor poll results. In May 2006, the degradation of Aboriginal communities, and the frequent
child sexual abuses that occurred within these, was brought to the forefront of the public's mind. In response to this,
a report into child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory was commissioned. Following this, there was an
intervention into these Northern Territory communities. This received widespread criticism, with some holding that it was no more than another attempt to control these communities. Howard was not exempt from this criticism on the grounds of racism. Howard supported the Bush administration's
2007 surge strategy in Iraq, and criticised Democrat US presidential candidate
Barack Obama for calling for a complete withdrawal of Coalition troops by March 2008.
2007 election during the
2007 federal 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. During the election campaign he was targeted by protesters including the John Howard Ladies Auxiliary Fanclub. Howard lost his seat of Bennelong to former journalist
Maxine McKew with 44,685 votes (51.4 per cent) to Howard's 42,251 (48.6 per cent). The latest redistribution placed Bennelong right on the edge of seats Labor needed to win to make Rudd prime minister. The ABC actually listed Bennelong as a Labor gain on election night. However, the 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 per cent) of Green voters listed McKew as their second preference. Howard was only the second Australian prime minister to lose his seat in an election since
Stanley Bruce in 1929. 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. ==Retirement==