by Y Tian

Created on: January 04, 2009

John Winston Howard, the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, will much to his regret not go down in the history books as the second-longest serving Australia Prime Minister but rather as the second sitting Prime Minister (after Stanley Bruce) to lose his own seat in a re-election. His decision to stay on for the election amidst public outrage over WorkChoices, rising interest rate and his inability to admit his own wrong-doings rather than step down at the peak of his career goes to show exactly the type of blunders he has managed to commit during his terms as the Prime Minister of Australia.

The eleven years of Howard rule can be summarised as two years of tightly holding the surplus followed by throwing it all out to the public in the election year. Instead of seizing the opportunity of the strong Australian economy and the budget surplus to expand infrastructure, build a national broadband network and putting Australia out onto the world stage, he spent it all in a spending frenzy for a bid to hold onto his throne. The tactic worked ridiculously well. It's amazing how quickly voters forget his past mistakes with that little bit of extra cash in their pockets.

Despite previously vowing to never introduce a Goods & Services Tax (GST), Howard put it into motion in 2000 during his second term amongst much public anger. To appease the public, he got up to his usual trick and offered a $7,000 "first home buyers grant." While many people welcomed this grant, it had many shortcomings. Firstly, there were no restrictions on the grant as long as you are a first time home buyer, you were eligible for it. So wealthy couples who buy million dollar houses are also able to get the free $7,000. This is not exactly how taxpayers like to see their money spent. Furthermore, this grant was introduced at the beginning of the property boom, which is similar to adding fuel to the fire. Eventually, this resulted in properties' values sky-rocket until housing affordability was at an all time low. And now, with a world economic recession looming in the horizon, the property market bubble is about the burst.

Another major blunder during the Howard rule occurred in 2001. With Howard facing a possible defeat in the looming election, he played up the Children Overboard Affair to the public, which many political analysts later cited as the decisive issue in Howard's 2001 election victory. In October 2001, a suspected illegal vessel containing 223 refugees was intercepted by the Australian

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