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 authority. John Howard claimed that the refugees had thrown their children into the water and sank the boat as they tried to force the Australian warship grant them asylum. This claim was made despite the government knowing perfectly well that it did not happen. It was later revealed, after the election, that the Government had exaggerated if not fabricated these claims. However, with tax cuts and time, the public soon forgot about this blunder.
Australians value their independent thinking and that's why Australian's can't stand John Howard parroting whatever George W Bush says. When Australia joined the US in the invasion of Iraq, the public is deeply divided on the war. There were large public protests against the war. Senior figures from Howard's own Liberal party publicly criticized John Howard's decision. John Valder, a former president of the Liberal party claimed that Howard should be tried and punished as a war criminal. The Australian Senate was equally condemning, presenting its first no-confidence vote against a serving leader. While it was eventually defeated in the House of Representatives, its presence symbolized the public condemnation of the Howard government.
Despite John Howard's many blunders, across-the-board tax cuts have always ensured his victory when it comes to elections. The general public is always ready to forgive him for his past mistakes as long as there is a little extra cash in their pockets come election time. However, what they couldn't forgive was when he put their very livelihoods on the line. In 2005, John Howard announced significant changes (dubbed WorkChoices) to the industrial relations laws including altering unfair dismissal laws (complete removal for companies with fewer than 101 employees), increasing restrictions on industrial strikes and outlawing pattern bargaining. This was met with pronounced opposition from the general public, the union movement and state Labor governments. Between 100,000 to 175,000 people attended nationwide protests. Many political analysts have stated WorkChoices as the final blunder of John Howard.
His blunders over those long 11 years finally caught up with him. On the 14th of October, 2007, when Howard announced the 2007 election, he declared boldly that "the country does not need new leadership, it does not need old leadership. It needs the right type of leadership." The fact that the Coalition lost that election, suffering a 23-seat swing to Labor as the fourth worst defeat of an incumbent government since Federation shows the general public no longer views John Howard as the "right" type of leadership.