John Winston Howard - what is his legacy?

[kickazz]

Howard was PM through most of my youth/adolescence, but I was too young and disengaged to really understand anything regarding his politics (except that my parents loved him).

I'll always remember him for two things - the gun control/buyback after Port Arthur and this:

Haha was waiting for this.

No PM since has dared to be filmed live trying to bowl a cricket ball. Too risky.

 

[Doss]

Gun control - very good

Basically everything else - mostly arse. His stances on race, refugees and gay rights are particularly puke-worthy.

I will also say this. Much of the fudging and trashing of principles of government accountability, the non-stop culture warring and victim mentality of the right that people so bemoan today under Morrison have their genesis in the Howard government years.

Basically, he was PM for 141 months. His first month was marked by the wholesale culling of the public service. His next few months were dominated by gun control issues. Let's say that took him through to about August or September 1996. From that point until he left office, the less said about his tenure, the better.

 

[kickazz]

Neoliberalism, selfishness and the slow death of the Australian fair go. Australia is now a country where if you come from a rich family you'll probably make a lot of money and if you come from a poor family you'll probably be paying for your landlord's mortgage and cars for life.

I respect John Howard but he started Australia on a dark American-style path we are still on.

Tend to agree here.

I think things like the Baby Bonus and First Home Owner's Grant were arguably about helping give everyone a fair go - and it sort of did, at the time. But the upshot has been that property prices became artificially inflated because of it and we now face the situation you describe. It was great if you got on board that train, stiff s**t if you missed it though.

 

[mighty tiges]

I wonder if everyone feels "comfortable and relaxed" .

Aside from gun laws which is his only positive legacy, Howard was/is the ultimate reactionist. He drove our country into the dirt as treasurer and then as opposition leader and PM pandered to fear and reactionary politics. He promoted the history & cultural wars where us evolving into modern fully independent multicultural Australia embracing our own unique completely separate identity and destiny was to be feared and loathed as "unAustralian". We instead all had to be Union Jack loving monarchist mummies boys trapped into chasing a phony nostalgic past that never existed. He did this while bribing the electorate with unsustainable 'quick-fixes' and short-sighted middle class welfare that we and future generations are now burdened with and future governments can't/won't (politically) remove. The country has gone backwards over the past quarter of a century and Howard was the author of it .

 

[Caesar]

Opinions on Howard are definitely dictated by age. For a lot of people who were adults during Keating's last term (particularly middle income earners, who'd been left in the cold), the first couple of terms of Howard were a bit of relief. Gun control, the GST, partial privatisation of Telstra, Wik 10-Point Plan, IR reform and busting the MUA, leading INTERFET, etc. were all largely seen as jobs well done by the majority of Australians.

Those who came of age around the time of Tampa have far more negative opinions, and understandably so. By their third term they were mostly out of ideas, and with Labor in the wilderness they just turned to pushing their old policies much too far and dialing up the xenophobia and dog whistling.

Two terms seems to be about the sweet spot for governments I think

 

[Doss]

Opinions on Howard are definitely dictated by age. For a lot of people who were adults during Keating's last term (particularly middle income earners, who'd been left in the cold), the first couple of terms of Howard were a bit of relief. Gun control, the GST, partial privatisation of Telstra, Wik 10-Point Plan, IR reform and busting the MUA, leading INTERFET, etc. were all largely seen as jobs well done by the majority of Australians.

Those who came of age around the time of Tampa have far more negative opinions, and understandably so. By their third term they were mostly out of ideas, and with Labor in the wilderness they just turned to pushing their old policies much too far and dialing up the xenophobia and dog whistling.

Two terms seems to be about the sweet spot for governments I think

I think this is a very fair assessment for the most part and people's memories will be always coloured by recency syndrome to an extent too. The second half of his regime was notably worse than the first half and that is obviously fresher in the memory given it wasn't that long ago.

I'd argue that what ultimately did Howard in was Work Choices though. It was just a step too far for a lot of people, especially as it came on the back of Howard using the Tasmania forests issue to drive a wedge in 2004 and win that election by portraying himself as the working man's friend. It just didn't wash for too many people.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

He made a lot of moves that... the longer time goes on, the more pronounced the impact, and the worse they get.

Embedded middle class welfare, a sense of entitlement and selfishness. Made looking out for #1 and racism cool.

As everyone has said, gun control is his crowning achievement. In fact, it’s one of very few big reform achievements that any Liberal government has ever achieved. Their cupboard is very bare.

 

[Gough]

Howard was elected with a record as a minister that was about as good as Tony Abbott's.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Everyone blames Abbott for the destruction of the manufacturing industry in Australia (particularly car manufacturing) but while Ford announced they were leaving under Abbott, you can actually identify the seeds were sown back in the late 90's when we were falling over ourselves trying to sign as many free trade agreements with our neighbours as possible. Like, have a look at the details of some of the FTAs we eagerly signed with countries Thailand & Japan at the time. If we, as a country, didn't look completely ******* *ed back then, we definitely do now.

Another win for little Johnny

 

[imadodgyumpire]

One of the greatest pieces of s**t this country has ever produced.

Reflective of the electorate.

 

[Rotayjay]

I wonder if everyone feels "comfortable and relaxed" .

Aside from gun laws which is his only positive legacy, Howard was/is the ultimate reactionist. He drove our country into the dirt as treasurer and then as opposition leader and PM pandered to fear and reactionary politics. He promoted the history & cultural wars where us evolving into modern fully independent multicultural Australia embracing our own unique completely separate identity and destiny was to be feared and loathed as "unAustralian". We instead all had to be Union Jack loving monarchist mummies boys trapped into chasing a phony nostalgic past that never existed. He did this while bribing the electorate with unsustainable 'quick-fixes' and short-sighted middle class welfare that we and future generations are now burdened with and future governments can't/won't (politically) remove. The country has gone backwards over the past quarter of a century and Howard was the author of it .

The irony and the effect of neoliberal policy is that Australia, as a whole, has become less comfortable and relaxed.

You're less comfortable and relaxed when your pay isn't rising and the cost of living is (and corporate profits are rising handsomely too). You're less comfortable and relaxed when you can't afford to own your own home or your kids can't. You're less comfortable and relaxed when the roads are clogged because cheapskate governments have under-invested in infrastructure. You're less comfortable and relaxed when you can't get a job without fifty years of experience in that niche field.

Inequality makes for a decidedly uncomfortable and stressed society. John Howard and his disciples in the current government paved the way for Australia to be more unequal. **** them.

 

[Pie eyed]

His legacy?

Enacting legislation to ostracise the gay population, leading to the last 15 tears of "debate" about "legalising" gay marriage which he personally banned, for purely political reasons.

Leading Australia into an illegal invasion of a sovereign state for purely political reasons, based on lie he knew was lie,
costing billions of dollars across three generations, killing Australians, thousands of innocent inhabitants and destroying our international reputation as a fair and honorable nation.

Squandering the proceeds from the nations greatest natural resources boom on bolstering his popularity with the rich and the Christian right wing, ignoring the disadvantaged and spitting in the faces of our indigenous peoples.

Generally being a dirty little mean Liberal campaigner


Allowing a ******* like Tony Abbott to reside in his party.

 

[Pie eyed]

Every body knows that "campaigner" means C...U...N...T.
Why the censorship?

We have to put up with Morison and Dutton yet cannot correctly and accurately describe them?
Is this 1984?

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

He is the man who gutted education, healthcare, wasted the mining boom, set up s**t tax laws that means we all pay more tax compared to large companies, upswing in murican style nationalism.

Bloke ruined this nation for everyone born after 1985.

 

[Bareth Garry]

He was just there.

Was PM for so long but I don't think his tenure was too consequential given the duration of time and what he could have done in that time.

I lived in England for a few years during his time and on the international stage he was a nobody. Which I guess is not bad if you look at it in the perspective that leaders get more international press for being in scandal or a terrible crisis in their jobs.

 

[Christopher Buttersnip]

Howard didn’t make Australians racist, but he did make casual racism respectable again, and *ed our country’s journey on that learning curve that many are always on, re-evaluating the past, interrogating our assumptions, examining our behaviour. We now have a reputation. Visitors notice it. BBC correspondent Nick Bryant, who was stationed here for several years, noted the casual racism in “polite company”; the British-American comedian John Oliver found Australia “sensational” yet also “one of the most comfortably racist places I’ve ever been in. They’ve really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.”

It remains enmeshed in our political sphere, precisely because it is believed to be good politics. It pollutes our asylum seeker policy. And, yes, behaviour at the elite level does trickle down.

That is John Howard’s chief legacy, and it’s not one to be proud of.

John Howard’s trickle-down legacy • Peter Brent

Those eleven years of government certainly had an impact, but not the one the Liberal PM is usually credited with

insidestory.org.au

.....

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Set in train the complete absence of ministerial accountability we see today.

Quickly grasped that whatever his own personal moral code, the only way to stay in power was to lie.

Lied about asylum seekers to win an election, lied about Muslims, perpetuated lies about WMD and thus has, to a proportionate degree, the blood of at least a hundred thousand innocent Iraqi men, women and children on his hands.

Turbocharged inequality, sold off much of the common wealth so he could lie about his government's economic management, turbocharged religious private school privilege at the expense of the comprehensive secular public school education that Australia's world-leading egalitarianism was built on.

The reason for much of what is phuccked about Australia today.

 

[kickazz]

I wonder if everyone feels "comfortable and relaxed"

His lack of ambition/vision wrapped up in three words. With record private debt and so much under/precarious employment I think he failed his own metric here.

Set in train the complete absence of ministerial accountability we see today.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this / give examples? Were ministers much more accountable pre-Howard? What changed it?

 

[Gough]

His lack of ambition/vision wrapped up in three words. With record private debt and so much under/precarious employment I think he failed his own metric here.



Can you elaborate on what you mean by this / give examples? Were ministers much more accountable pre-Howard? What changed it?

Howard lost seven ministers in his first year for various acts of impropriety, after that he decided it was easier not to enforce ministerial standards.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Cant forget this for his legacy, Howards only good thing for state school educated kids.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this / give examples? Were ministers much more accountable pre-Howard? What changed it?

Yes. Pre-Howard, just off the top of my head, John Brown famously resigned over failing to declare a stuffed koala when coming through Customs. Ros Kelly resigned over an earlier version of Sports Rorts that was positively beginner-level compared to the recent Morrison govt effort.

When Howard took office, in a move which was both refreshingly decent, and astoundingly naive for a seasoned politician, he introduced a tough Ministerial Code of Conduct.

His ministers immediately started falling like flies, and rather than enforce his own worthy standards, he took the disgraceful decision to ensure his government's continuing survival by in future bullschitting their way out of any transgression.

It was disgustingly supine and clearly led to the problems we have with this bunch of out-and-out crooks now in office federally. For raising standards of political accountability, if he had stuck to his morals, he could have been one of Australia's greatest prime ministers. For caving in so cravenly on so important a policy, he ensured he was one of our worst.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

John Howard’s trickle-down legacy • Peter Brent

Those eleven years of government certainly had an impact, but not the one the Liberal PM is usually credited with

insidestory.org.au

.....

That's a very good article, refreshingly free of smartarsery.

 

[Mara Singha]

Legacy gets worse with every passing month. Social conservatism has aged badly and doesn't get a pass because it was the 21st century. Squandered economic opportunities. Set up/Enhanced a property class with little regard for anyone coming along later. Current Liberal Government could match his 4 election wins which will do nothing for the "political genius" tag.

 

[pjcrows]

11 wasted years and an illegal war that continues today.

 

[nobbyiscool]

As a Tasmanian who was touched deeply by the Port Arthur tragedy, I'll always begin any discussion of his legacy and say is gun reformation was popular in the cities, but was actually really brave in the regions. The modern-day Liberals are so hamstrung by the crazies in their own party and in the Nats that they wouldn't have the political will to do it now.

But the rest of his legacy?

Middle class welfare and structural budget deficit.
Racism and fear mongering as government policy.
Ongoing demonisation of the LGBTQI+ community.
The waterfront dispute and the class warfare we've been fighting for over 20 years since.
Sending us backwards in Indigenous reconciliation.
And of course the illegal war that kept on giving, radicalising a whole generation for us to fight against, creating a generation of refugees that we then turned our backs on.

His populist approach worked out really badly for us, aside from gun control I think his Prime Ministership has aged really poorly, especially when you consider how long he had the job.

At least he spent half a decade ******* with Peter Costello.