Honorific-prefix	The Honourable
Name	Bob Hawke
Honorific-suffix	AC, GCL
Order	23rd Prime Minister of AustraliaElections: 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990
Term start	11 March 1983
Term end	20 December 1991
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-general	Ninian StephenBill Hayden
Deputy	Lionel Bowen (1983–1990)Paul Keating (1990–1991)Brian Howe (1991)
Predecessor	Malcolm Fraser
Successor	Paul Keating
Order2	Leader of the Opposition
Term start2	3 February 1983
Term end2	11 March 1983
Predecessor2	Bill Hayden
Successor2	Andrew Peacock
Order3	Treasurer of Australia
Term start3	3 June 1991
Term end3	4 June 1991
Predecessor3	Paul Keating
Successor3	John Kerin
Constituency mp4	Wills
Parliament4	Australian
Term start4	18 October 1980
Term end4	20 February 1992
Predecessor4	Gordon Bryant
Successor4	Phil Cleary
Birthname	Robert James Lee Hawke
Birth date	December 09, 1929
Birth place	Bordertown, South Australia
Party	Australian Labor Party
Occupation	Trade unionist
Alma mater	University of Western AustraliaUniversity College, Oxford
Spouse	Hazel Hawke (1956–1995)Blanche d'Alpuget (since 1995)
Children	Three + one died in infancy
Residence	Point Piper, New South Wales }}

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL (born 9 December 1929) was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister.

After a decade as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, he entered politics at the 1980 federal election and became Prime Minister within three years. He became by far the longest-serving and most electorally successful Labor Prime Minister, achieving the rare feat of winning four consecutive federal elections after coming to power at the 1983 federal election. He is Australia's third longest-serving Prime Minister.

Early life and education

Hawke was born in Bordertown, a small town in South Australia near the Victorian border. His father Clem was a Congregationalist minister; his uncle, Albert Hawke, was Labor Premier of Western Australia between 1953 and 1959 and was a close friend of Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, who was in many ways Bob Hawke's role model. Hawke's mother, Ellie, had an almost messianic belief in her son's destiny and this contributed to his supreme self-confidence throughout his career. Both his parents were of Cornish origins and he himself has stated that his background is Cornish. This led the Cornish writer and historian A.L. Rowse to write "Bob Hawke's characteristics are as Cornish as Australian. I know them well: the aggressive individualism, the egoism, the touchiness, the liability to resentment, even a touch of vindictiveness." While attending the 1952 World Christian Youth Conference, held in Kottayam in southern India, Hawke was struck by "this enormous sense of irrelevance of religion to the needs of the people" and abandoned his Christian beliefs. By the time he entered politics he was a self-described agnostic. Hawke told Andrew Denton in 2008 that his father's Christian faith continued to influence his outlook however: "[My father] said if you believe in the fatherhood of God you must necessarily believe in the brotherhood of man, it follows necessarily and even though I left the church and was not religious, that truth remained with me."

Hawke was raised in Perth and attended Perth Modern School and completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Arts (Economics) at the University of Western Australia. At age 15, he boasted that he would one day become Prime Minister of Australia. He joined the Labor Party in 1947, and successfully applied for a Rhodes Scholarship at the end of 1952. In 1953, Hawke went to the University of Oxford to commence a Bachelor of Arts at University College. He soon found he was covering much the same ground as his Bachelor's degree from Perth, and switched to a Bachelor of Letters, with a thesis on wage-fixing in Australia. The thesis was successfully presented in January 1956.

His academic achievements were complemented by setting a new world speed record for beer drinking: he downed 2 1/2 pints - equivalent to a yard of ale - from a sconce pot in eleven seconds as part of a college penalty. In his memoirs, Hawke suggested that this single feat may have contributed to his political success more than any other, by endearing him to a voting population with a strong beer culture.

In March 1956, Hawke married Hazel Masterson, at Trinity Church, Perth, Western Australia. In the same year, Hawke accepted a scholarship to undertake doctoral studies in the area of arbitration law in the law department of the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. Soon after arrival at ANU, Hawke became the students' representative on the University Council.

In 1957, Hawke was recommended to the ACTU president Albert Monk for the position of ACTU research officer to replace Harold Souter, who had become ACTU secretary. The recommendation was made by Hawke's mentor at ANU, H.P. Brown, who for a number of years had assisted the ACTU in national wage cases. Hawke decided to abandon his doctoral studies and accept the offer. The Hawke family moved to Melbourne.

Trade union leader

Not long after Hawke began work at the ACTU, he became responsible for the presentation of its annual case for higher wages to the national wages tribunal, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. He was first appointed as the ACTU advocate in 1959. The 1958 case, under advocate R.L Eggleston, had yielded only a five-shilling increase. The 1959 case found for a fifteen-shilling increase, and was regarded as a personal triumph for Hawke. He went on to attain such success and prominence in his role as ACTU advocate, that in 1969 he was encouraged to run for ACTU President, despite the fact that he had never held elected office in a trade union.

He was elected to the presidency of the ACTU in 1969 on a modernising platform, by a narrow margin (399 to 350) and with the support of the left of the union movement, including some associated with the Communist Party.

Hawke declared publicly that "socialist is not a word I would use to describe myself" and his approach to government was pragmatic. He concerned himself with making improvements to workers' lives from within the traditional institutions of government, rather than to any ideological theory. He opposed the Vietnam war, but was a strong supporter of the US-Australian alliance, and also an emotional supporter of Israel. It was his commitment to the cause of Jewish Refuseniks that led to a planned assassination attempt by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and its Australian operative Munif Mohammed Abou Rish.

In industrial matters, Hawke continued to demonstrate a preference for and considerable skill at negotiation, and was generally liked and respected by employers as well as the unions he advocated for. As early as 1972 speculation began that he would soon enter Parliament and become Labor leader. But while his career continued successfully, his heavy use of alcohol and his notorious womanising placed considerable strains on his family life.

In 1973 Hawke became Federal President of the Labor Party. When the Gough Whitlam government was controversially dismissed by the Governor-General in 1975 and the government defeated at the ensuing election, Whitlam initially offered the Labor leadership to Hawke, although it was not within Whitlam's power to decide who would succeed him. Hawke decided not to enter Parliament at that time, a decision he soon regretted. He was, however, influential in averting national strike action. The strain of this period took its toll, and in 1979 he suffered a physical collapse.

This shock led Hawke to make a sustained and ultimately successful effort to conquer his alcoholism – John Curtin was his inspiration in this as in other things. He was helped in this by his relationship with the writer Blanche d'Alpuget, who in 1982 published an admiring biography of Hawke. His popularity with the public was unaffected, and polling suggested that he was a far more popular politician than either Bill Hayden, the Labor leader since 1977, or the incumbent Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

Parliamentarian

Hawke initially attempted to enter parliament at the 1963 federal election in the seat of Corio and achieved a 3.1 percent swing against the national trend, but fell short. Later, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Melbourne seat of Wills at the 1980 election held on 18 October. Immediately upon his entry into Parliament, Hawke was appointed to the Opposition front bench, taking his place as Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment and Youth. With the opinion polls indicating that Hawke was 'a certain election winner', Hayden called a leadership ballot for 16 July 1982. Although Hayden defeated the ambitious Hawke, his five vote victory over the former President of the ACTU was not large enough to dispel doubts in caucus that he could lead the ALP to victory at the next election, due sometime in the forthcoming year.

Hayden's leadership was further questioned when Labor performed poorly in a December 1982 by-election for the Victorian seat of Flinders, following the resignation of the former Liberal minister, Sir Phillip Lynch. Labor needed a swing of 5.5% to win the seat, but only achieved 3%. This convinced many doubters within caucus that only Hawke could guarantee a Labor victory at the upcoming election. Labor party power-brokers such as Graham Richardson and Barrie Unsworth now lined up behind Hawke. More significantly, Hayden's staunch friend and political ally, Labor senate Leader John Button, eventually became convinced that Hawke's chances of victory were greater than Hayden's. Button's influence was crucial in encouraging Hayden's decision to resign less than two months after Labor's lacklustre performance in Flinders. Hawke's leadership ambitions were realised when Hayden announced his resignation as Labor leader on the morning of 3 February 1983, at a meeting of the shadow ministry in Brisbane. Hawke was named interim leader. He believed he'd caught Labor before it could replace Hayden, and was surprised to find out Hayden had resigned mere hours before the writs were dropped. Hawke was formally elected Hayden's successor five days later. Twenty five days later, Labor won power on a 24-seat swing, ending seven years of conservative rule.

Prime Minister 1983–91

The inaugural days of the Hawke government were distinctly different from those of the Whitlam era. Rather than immediately initiating extensive reform programmes, Hawke announced that Fraser's pre-election concealment of the budget deficit meant that many of Labor's election commitments would have to be deferred. Hawke managed to persuade the Labor caucus to divide the ministry into two tiers, with only the most important ministers attending regular cabinet meetings. Caucus still selected the full ministry, but allowed Hawke to select which ministers would comprise the 13-strong inner cabinet. This was to avoid what Hawke viewed as the unwieldy nature of the 27-member Whitlam cabinet. The caucus under Hawke also exhibited a much more formalised system of parliamentary factions, which significantly altered the dynamics of caucus operations.

Hawke used his great authority to carry out a substantial set of policy changes. Accounts from ministers indicate that while Hawke was not usually the driving force for economic reform (that impetus coming from the Treasurer Paul Keating and Industry Minister John Button), he took the role of reaching consensus and providing political guidance on what was electorally feasible and how best to sell it to the public, at which he was highly successful. Hawke proved to be very popular with the Australian electorate and continues to hold the highest historical ACNielsen approval rating.

Keating and Hawke provided a study in contrasts. Hawke was a Rhodes Scholar; Keating left high school early. Hawke's enthusiasms were cigars, horse racing and all forms of sport; Keating preferred classical architecture, Mahler symphonies, and collecting English Regency and French Empire antiques. Hawke was consensus-driven; Keating revelled in aggressive debate. Hawke was a lapsed Protestant; Keating was a practising Catholic. Despite their differences, the two formed an effective political partnership.

According to political commentator Paul Kelly, 'the most influential economic decisions of the 1980s were the floating of the Australian Dollar and the deregulation of the financial system'. Although the Fraser government had played a part in the process of financial deregulation by commissioning the Campbell reportpublished in 1981opposition from Fraser himself, the National Party and Treasury Secretary John Stone stalled the deregulation process. When the Hawke-Keating Government implemented a comprehensive program of financial deregulation and reform, it 'transformed economics and politics in Australia'. The Australian economy became significantly more integrated with the global economy. Both Hawke and Keating have claimed the credit for being the driving force behind the Australian Dollar float.

Among other reforms, the Hawke Government dismantled the tariff system, privatised state sector industries, ended subsidisation of loss-making industries, and sold off the state-owned Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The tax system was reformed, with the introduction of fringe benefits tax and a capital gains tax – a reform strongly opposed by the Liberal Party at the time, but not reversed when they returned to office. Partially offsetting these imposts upon the business communitythe 'main loser' from the 1985 Tax Summit, according to Paul Kellywas the introduction of full dividend imputation, a reform insisted upon by Keating.

Hawke benefited greatly from the disarray into which the Liberal opposition fell after the resignation of Fraser. The Liberals were divided between supporters of the dour socially conservative John Howard and the urbane Andrew Peacock. The arch-conservative Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, also helped Hawke with his "Joh for Canberra" campaign in 1987, which proved highly damaging for the conservatives. Exploiting these divisions, Hawke led the Labor Party to comfortable election victories in 1984 and 1987.

Hawke's Prime Ministership saw considerable friction between himself and the grassroots of the Labor Party, who were unhappy at what they viewed as Hawke's iconoclasm and willingness to cooperate with business interests. All Labor Prime Ministers have at times engendered the hostility of the organisational wing of the party, but none more so than Hawke, who expressed his willingness to cull Labor's "sacred cows". The Socialist Left faction, as well as prominent Labor figure Barry Jones, offered severe criticism of a number of government decisions. He has also received criticism for his 'confrontationalist style' in siding with the airlines in the 1989 Australian pilots' strike.

In spite of the criticisms levelled against the Hawke Government, it succeeded in enacting a wide range of social reforms during its time in office. Deflecting arguments that the Hawke Government had failed as a reform government, Neville Wran, John Dawkins, Bill Hayden, and Paul Keating made a number of speeches during the Eighties arguing that the Hawke Government had been a recognisably reformist Labor government, drawing attention to Hawke’s achievements as prime minister during his first four or five years in office. Apart from the reintroduction of Medibank (under the name Medicare), these included a doubling of child care places, the introduction of occupational superannuation, a boost in school retention rates, a focus on young people’s job skills, a doubling of subsidised home care services, the elimination of poverty traps in the welfare system, a 50% increase in public housing funds, an increase in the real value of the old-age pension, the development of a new youth support program, the re-introduction of six-monthly indexation of single adult unemployment benefits, and significant improvements in social security provisions. As pointed out by John Dawkins, the proportion of total government outlays allocated to families, the sick, single parents, widows, the handicapped, and veterans had been higher under the Hawke Government than under the Whitlam Government.

A notable success for which the government's response is given considerable credit was Australia's public health campaign about AIDS. In the later years of the Hawke government, Aboriginal affairs saw considerable attention, with an investigation of the idea of a treaty between Aborigines and the government, though this idea was overtaken by events, notably including the Mabo court decision.

The Hawke government also made some notable environmental decisions. In its first months in office it stopped the construction of the Franklin Dam, on the Franklin River in Tasmania, responding to a groundswell of protest about the issue. In 1990, a looming tight election saw a tough political operator, Graham Richardson, appointed Environment Minister, whose task it was to attract second-preference votes from the Australian Democrats and other environmental parties. Richardson claimed this as a major factor in the government's narrow re-election in 1990, Hawke's last triumph.

Richardson felt that the importance of his contribution to Labor's victory would automatically entitle him to the ministerial portfolio of his choiceTransport and Communications. He was shocked, however, at what he perceived as Hawke's ingratitude in allocating him Social Security instead. He vowedin a telephone conversation with Peter Barron, He immediately transferred his allegiance to Keating and subsequently claimed credit for playing a vital role in Keating's campaign for the leadership as a numbers man.

Decline and fall

The late 1980s recession and high interest rates saw the government in considerable electoral trouble. Although Keating was the main architect of the government's economic policies, he took advantage of Hawke's declining popularity to plan a leadership challenge. In 1988 Hawke had responded to pressure from Keating to step down by making a secret agreement (the so-called "Kirribilli agreement" or "Kirribilli accord") to resign in favour of Keating some time after winning the 1990 election. After Keating made a speech to the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery that Hawke considered disloyal, Hawke indicated to Keating that he would renege on the agreement.

In June 1991 Keating responded by resigning from Cabinet and challenging for the Labor Party leadership. Hawke defeated Keating's leadership challenge, but he was clearly a wounded leader. Hawke had himself sworn in as Treasurer for one day while he decided between the rival claims of Ralph Willis and John Kerin for the job, eventually choosing Kerin, who proved to be unequal to the job.

Hawke's leadership was further damaged as a consequence of the new Liberal leader, Dr John Hewson, releasing Fightback!, a detailed proposal for sweeping economic change, including a goods and services tax and deep cuts to government spending and personal income tax, in November 1991. Hawke's response to this challenge was judged to be ineffective, and a rattled Labor Party turned to Keating. At a second challenge, on 20 December 1991, Keating defeated Hawke in a party-room ballot, 56 votes to 51. Hawke resigned from Parliament on 20 February 1992, sparking the 1992 Wills by-election, which was won by independent Phil Cleary from a record field of 22 candidates.

Hawke apparently had few regrets, although his bitterness towards Keating surfaced in his memoirs. Hawke now claims to have buried his differences and considers Keating a friend.

In July 1990, Hawke had outstripped Malcolm Fraser to become Australia's second-longest serving Prime Minister. This record has since been overtaken by John Howard. Hawke remains the Australian Labor Party's longest-serving Prime Minister.

It is also said by a former Tony Blair staffer that UK Labour and Blair learnt from the Hawke government in the 1980s on how to govern when they took power in the UK.

Life after politics

After politics, Hawke entered the business world with considerable success. Hazel Hawke, who for the sake of the Labor cause had put up with the open secret of his relationship with his biographer Blanche d'Alpuget while he was Prime Minister, divorced him, and shortly afterwards he married d'Alpuget. He had little to do with the Labor Party during Keating's leadership. In fact he often criticised the Keating Government publicly. After the election of the Howard Liberal government in 1996 he became a close supporter of Opposition Leader Kim Beazley.

In the run up to the 2007 election, Hawke (at the age of 78) made a considerable personal effort to support the Australian Labor Party's campaign, making speeches at a large number of campaign office openings across Australia. As well as campaigning against WorkChoices, Hawke also attacked John Howard's record as Treasurer, stating "it was the judgement of every economist and international financial institution that it was the restructuring reforms undertaken by my government with the full cooperation of the trade union movement which created the strength of the Australian economy today".

In 2009, Hawke helped establish the Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia. Interfaith dialogue is an important issue for Hawke, who told the ''Adelaide Review'' that he is "convinced that one of the great potential dangers confronting the world is the lack of understanding in regard to the Muslim world. Fanatics have misrepresented what Islam is. They give a false impression of the essential nature of Islam."

Honours

Hawke was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1979.

In late 2008, he was made Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu, the highest Papua New Guinean honour available to non-Papua New Guinean citizens, entitling him to be referred to as "Chief". In a letter to Bob Hawke, Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare informed him that he was being honoured for his "support for Papua New Guinea [...] from the time you assisted in the development of our trade union movement, and basic workplace conditions, to the strong support you gave us during your term as Prime Minister of Australia".

In August 2009 Bob Hawke became just the third person to be awarded life membership of the Australian Labor Party.

Bob Hawke has received the following honours from academic institutions:

Honorary Fellow – University College, Oxford

Honorary Doctor of Letters – University of Western Australia

Honorary Doctor of Civil Law – Oxford University

Honorary Doctor of Humanities – Rikkyo University

other honorary doctoral degrees from Nanjing University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of New South Wales, and the University of South Australia

The University of South Australia named the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library in his honour.

Television film

A television film titled ''Hawke'' detailing his political career aired on the Ten Network in Australia on 18 July 2010, with Richard Roxburgh playing the title character. Rachael Blake and Felix Williamson portrayed Hazel Hawke and Paul Keating respectively. Patrick Brammall starred as then Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley.

See also

First Hawke Ministry

Second Hawke Ministry

Third Hawke Ministry

Fourth Hawke Ministry

The Accord

References

Bibliography

Blewett, Neal (2000), 'Robert James Lee Hawke,' in Michelle Grattan (ed.), ''Australian Prime Ministers'', New Holland, Sydney, New South Wales, pages 380-407. ISBN 1-86436-756-3

External links

Hawke Swoops into Power – Time 14/3/1983

Robert Hawke – Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia

Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre

Video of Hawke campaigning for McKew in Bennellong in late 2007

Video of Hawke campaigning for an Australian republic

Video of Norman Gunston, Gough Whitlam, Bill Hayden and Bob Hawke at 'The Dismissal'

1992}} 1991}} 1991}}

Category:1929 births Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford Category:Australian agnostics Category:Australian Labor Party politicians Category:Australian Leaders of the Opposition Category:Australian people of Cornish descent Category:Australian republicans Category:Australian Rhodes scholars Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Franklin Dam Category:Living people Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Wills Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Category:People from South Australia Category:People educated at Perth Modern School Category:Prime Ministers of Australia Category:Trade unionists from Melbourne Category:Treasurers of Australia Category:University of Western Australia alumni

cs:Bob Hawke da:Bob Hawke de:Bob Hawke es:Bob Hawke fr:Bob Hawke ko:밥 호크 it:Bob Hawke lt:Robert Hawke mr:बॉब हॉक ja:ボブ・ホーク no:Bob Hawke pl:Bob Hawke ru:Хоук, Роберт simple:Bob Hawke sk:Bob Hawke fi:Bob Hawke sv:Bob Hawke uk:Роберт Гоук vi:Bob Hawke yo:Bob Hawke zh:鮑勃·霍克

name	Richard Carleton
birth date	July 11, 1943
birth place	Bowral, New South Wales, Australia
death date	May 07, 2006
death place	Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia
education	Sydney Grammar SchoolUniversity of New South Wales.
occupation	Television current affairs journalist
spouse	Sharon Carleton
children	Oliver Carleton, James Carleton, Jenny Carleton
credits	''This Day Tonight''''Tonight''''The Carleton-Walsh Report''''60 Minutes''}}

Richard George Carleton (11 July 19437 May 2006) was a multi-Logie Award winning Australian television journalist.

Education

Carleton was born in Bowral, New South Wales. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and graduated from the University of New South Wales.

Television/journalism career

ABC/BBC

In the 1960s he was a reporter on ''This Day Tonight'' as well as being the presenter of ''State of the Nation'', both on the ABC. He continued these roles until he left for a role on 2GB Radio in 1976, followed by what began as a lifelong love of travelling and researching overseas, producing films in Indonesia (including being the only journalist to be allowed to visit the newly "integrated" East Timor) and the Middle East.

Carleton joined the BBC in London in 1977 for the ''Tonight'' program, before returning to Australia in 1979. During 1986, Carleton was a co-presenter of ''The Carleton-Walsh Report'' on the ABC, with financial journalist Max Walsh.

Carleton ran for election in 1983 as the staff representative on the ABC Board. He was defeated by Tom Molomby, who wrote: :"His was a remarkable policy statement, the most blatant demonstration of political cynicism (I cannot believe it was the only other alternative, stupidity) which I have ever seen in an ABC election.".

Nine Network

In 1987 Carleton began his most famous television journalism role, as a reporter on ''60 Minutes''. In a career with the program that spanned almost 20 years, he visited many locations around the world investigating political climates. In 2006 he and producer Stephen Rice visited Chernobyl and were given unprecedented access to the sarcophagus built over the ruined nuclear reactor, including a brief visit to the abandoned control room. Carleton was parodied on the Australian sketch-comedy shows ''Fast Forward'' and ''Comedy Inc.'' for his perceived over-prominence on ''60 Minutes''.

In July 2000, the ABC's ''Media Watch'' program accused Carleton of plagiarising the BBC documentary ''A Cry from the Grave''. Carleton denied the claims, suing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for defamation. In 2002 the case was heard and the judge found that while Carleton had "misled his audience by misrepresenting a mass grave site shown in the programme, and that ''60 Minutes'' had copied film directly from the British documentary", the allegations made by ''Media Watch'' were in fact untrue and had defamed Carleton. Carleton was greatly relieved by the ruling.

Carleton won five Penguin Awards and three Logie Awards during his time with ''60 Minutes'' and at the ABC.

Interview with Bob Hawke

Carleton is probably most famously known for a comment made to the incoming federal Australian Labor Party leader Bob Hawke in 1983: "''Mr. Hawke, could I ask you whether you feel a little embarrassed tonight at the blood that's on your hands?''" which was a reference to the alleged involvement of Hawke in the resignation of former Labor leader, Bill Hayden. The question outraged Hawke, who criticised Carleton for his "damned impertinence".

Death

Carleton had experienced a number of health scares, the first in 1988 when he underwent heart bypass surgery, which was nationally televised, and another in 2003 when he suffered a heart attack. In 2005 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

On 7 May 2006, Carleton collapsed from a massive heart attack during a press conference at the Beaconsfield gold mine, shortly after questioning mine manager Matthew Gill on previous safety issues at the site. His last words were: ''"On 26 October last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rock fall. Why is it, is it the strength of the seam, or the wealth of the seam, that you continue to send men into work in such a dangerous environment?"''.

First-hand reports from the scene indicated that Carleton had a weak pulse when taken by ambulance to the Launceston General Hospital and that he had been puffing and gasping not long before he collapsed. Carleton died at 2:12 p.m, in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

References

External links

Sixty Minutes - Profile

Category:1943 births Category:Australian atheists Category:2006 deaths Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Australian journalists Category:Australian television presenters Category:People from Bowral, New South Wales Category:University of New South Wales alumni Category:People educated at Sydney Grammar School

Name	Andrew Denton
Birth name	Andrew Christopher Denton
Birth date	May 04, 1960
Birth place	Sydney, Australia
Occupation	Television Presenter, Producer, Writer, Radio personality, comedian
Active	1980s–present
Spouse	Jennifer Byrne1 child, Connor (born 1994)
Notable work	Blah Blah Blah, The Money or The Gun, Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, God on My Side, Triple M Network
Past members	}}

Andrew Christopher Denton (born 1960) is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program ''Enough Rope''. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique. He is also responsible for introducing the troupe The Chaser to Australian audiences.

Early life

Born 4 May 1960, Denton is the son of Kit Denton, writer and the author of the novel ''The Breaker'', about Australian soldier and folk hero Breaker Morant. He went to Roseville Primary School in Sydney before attending Blue Mountains Grammar School in Wentworth Falls. In 1977 he attended Guildford Grammar School. Despite attending a number of religious schools, he is now an atheist. Denton studied Media and Communications at Charles Sturt University (then Mitchell College of Advanced Education). He was involved in the campus radio station, 2MCE.

Career

Radio

Andrew Denton worked on Australian national radio stations early in his media career. Beginning as a writer for radio personality Doug Mulray on Triple M, and later appearing on the show as "Andrew the boy wonder from indoor cricket", he went on to write and host his own show. He also had an early involvement in the Sydney Theatresports movement.

Denton had an extended stint as a morning radio host for the Triple M Network in Sydney, with the assistance of Amanda Keller (who had regularly appeared on ''Denton''). Segments included musical challenges. His time on Triple M also included the infamous "House from Hell" competition, in which various contestants were placed in a house together and involved in various stunts, tricks and tortures. Denton has said in radio interviews that he regrets being involved in the program, due to the unacceptable level of human manipulation.

Television

Denton made his first telvision appearance as an extra on ABC television series ''The Investigators'', but gained more attention as a member of the team that was runner-up on the Australian improvised comedy show ''Theatresports'' in 1987.

From the late 1980s and into the 1990s, he worked on and hosted a number of TV shows, including ''Blah Blah Blah'' (1988), ''The Money or the Gun'' (1989-1990), ''Live and Sweaty'' (1991-1995), and his own comedy talk show, ''Denton''. The first three of these appeared on the ABC, while the last was on the Seven Network. All these shows were talk-based, but often featured other segments. ''Live and Sweaty'' focused on sports and was a panel-based television show. All had comic undertones - even when dealing with serious subjects - such as a ''Money or the Gun'' episode dealing with kids cancer sufferers.

Each week on ''The Money or the Gun'', Andrew had a musical guest play a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" in a different musical style, usually the genre of the guest's own musical style. Thus the song was played in styles ranging from grand opera to the quirky pop of The B-52's. This resulted in an album with 22 of the covers and a video with 25 (three highly visual covers, including the Castanet Club's "pirate" themed entry, were not included on the album).

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, musicians from Led Zeppelin, later appeared on ''Denton'' to perform a Rolf Harris song (Rolf performed a notable version of ''Stairway'', with wobble-board solo). Denton saw the beginning of the Musical Challenge segment, and would challenge musical guests to perform a song from a barrel full of well-known songs. This segment evolved during his time on Triple M, resulting in three albums with tracks including Tina Arena singing "Cheap Wine", The Wiggles singing ''Long way to the Top'', Neil Finn performing ''Sexual Healing'', James Reyne performing Kate Bush's ''Wuthering Heights'', Barenaked Ladies performing Prince's ''When Doves Cry'' and Paul Kelly performing Prince's ''Little Red Corvette''. Two volumes were released on CD titled ''Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge''.

While presenting ''Denton'' (the television series), Andrew Denton launched a public subscription scheme to hire a bounty hunter to capture fugitive businessman Christopher Skase, who was attempting to avoid extradition to Australia at the time. When told that his repeated statements against Skase could expose him to legal action, Denton said, "If he's got a problem, he can come here and sue me". He had a cameo appearance in the Australian film ''Let's Get Skase''. He stopped accepting 20-cent contributions to kidnap Skase, due to a specific request by the Attorney-General.

In 2003, Denton began hosting ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'', which became a hit for the ABC. Denton was also executive producer and script editor for ABC's ''The Election Chaser'' and ''CNNNN''. In an audience development survey in 2004, respondents named Denton one of the "most liked and recognisable" personalities on Australian television. ''Enough Rope'' ended in late 2008.

Asked about the best skill an interviewer can bring to the job, Denton said: "Research, clearly. Listening, obviously. And leaving myself open to the possibility it won’t go the way I expect." Asked if there was an interview he wished he could do again, he said: "I did an interview with Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and it was a crap interview because I am not very interested in royalty. Having accepted to do the interview, I should have found a way to get myself interested. If I wasn’t interested, why would the audience be? That was a great kick up the bum for me. It’s a lesson – I’ve learned it many times, but you always have to relearn it – just when you think you’re good at something, you find out what you’re not good at. It just reminded me, you can’t ever be lazy about it."

In 2009, Denton hosted the second season of ''Elders'', a series of interviews with ageing notable Australians.

Film

Denton's first feature-length documentary, ''God on My Side'', documents his visit to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. It was first shown at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2006 with plans to show it as a TV special on ABC's ''Enough Rope''. It was screened in Australian cinemas from 2 November 2006. Denton has insisted he is not anti-Christian.

In 2011, Denton served as executive producer on the crowd-funded horror film ''The Tunnel'', which was released on DVD, TV and through BitTorrent online downloading platforms on 18 May 2011, simultaneously. The film was directed by Carlo Ledesma, co-written, co-produced and co-edited by Julian Harvey and Enzo Tedeschi, and produced with Denton's production company Zapruder's Other Films.

Stage

Denton appeared as Malcolm Turnbull in the Belvoir St Theatre production of ''A Royal Commission into the Australian Economy'', written by John Clarke and Ross Stevenson, and participated in the early years of the ABC's ''World Series Debating''.

Production

Zapruder's other films is a production company founded in 1989 by Denton, Anita Jacoby and Peter Thompson. The company was named for Abraham Zapruder, the man who famously filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Works produced by the company include:

''CNNNN'' (2002-2003)

''David Tench Tonight'' (2006)

''Enough Rope'' (2003-2008)

''The Gruen Transfer'' (2008-Present)

''Elders'' (2008-2009)

''30 Seconds'' (2009)

''Hungry Beast'' (2009-Present)

''Gruen Nation'' (2010)

''The Tunnel'' (2011)

''AFP'' (2011)

''The Joy of Sets'' (2011-Present)

Awards / Logies

Denton has been involved in the Logie Awards for a number of years. He hosted the awards ceremony twice, in 1999 and in 2000. Denton has been nominated for several Logie awards:

the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television in 2008 and 2009, for his role in ''Enough Rope''

the 'Most Popular Presenter' award in 2005, 2008 and 2009, for his role in ''Enough Rope''

the 'Most Popular Comedy Personality' award in 1996, for his role in ''Denton''.

Personal life

Andrew Denton lives in Sydney. He and his wife, television journalist Jennifer Byrne have a son, Connor, born in 1994. Denton is tall; he is an avid supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Andrew was raised Roman Catholic but is now an atheist.

References

External links

Andrew Denton at the Internet Movie Database

''Enough Rope'' official website

"Zapruder's other films" official website

Category:1960 births Category:Australian atheists Category:Australian comedians Category:Australian television presenters Category:Walkley Award winners Category:People educated at Guildford Grammar School Category:Living people Category:Former Roman Catholics Category:People from Sydney Category:People from the Blue Mountains, New South Wales

simple:Andrew Denton

Norman Gunston was a satirical TV character performed by Australian actor and comedian Garry McDonald. Norman Gunston was primarily well known in his native Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United States during the mid to late 1970s.

Early years

The Gunston character was originally conceived by comedy writer Wendy Skelcher and first appeared as a minor character in the second series of the cult Australian TV comedy series ''The Aunty Jack Show'' in 1973. Cast member Garry McDonald portrayed Gunston as a dull and talentless local TV reporter from the industrial city of Wollongong - a locale that was the butt of many jokes throughout the series. The Gunston character made enough of an impression for him to be revived in a subsequent comedy mini-series made by the Aunty Jack team, ''Wollongong the Brave'' (1974), in which he starred in a satirical mock documentary ''Norman Gunston: The Golden Weeks''. His segments as Norman in ''What's On In Wollongong'' became one of the most popular parts of the Aunty Jack Show, and Norman appeared on the ''Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong'' album along with McDonald's other character, Kid Eager.

National Fame

In his later and most famous incarnation, Gunston had evolved to become the unlikely host of his own national TV variety show, ''The Norman Gunston Show'', which premiered with a live broadcast on ABC television on 18 May 1975. Dubbed "the little Aussie bleeder", (a play on the term "Aussie battler"), he satirised parochial Australian culture, media "personalities", and egocentric talk show hosts.

After a faltering start, the Norman Gunston show rapidly gained a huge national audience and the series became the pre-eminent Australian TV comedy program of its day, with McDonald winning a Gold Logie scoring several pop hits. He is, notably, the only Logie recipient who has received the award in the name of his character, rather than in his own name.

According to McDonald, the Gunston character and his show were initially devised as a parody of an (unintentionally bad) late-night Sydney TV variety show of the early 1970s hosted by expatriate American club entertainer Tommy Leonetti.

Format

The Gunston show was a subversive parody of the established variety "Tonight Show" format, centering on a weekly roster of celebrity guests who were 'interviewed' by Norman. Genuine musical performances by guest stars were countered by Norman's own unique interpretations of popular songs - he specialised in portraying his lyrics through mime and sign language and frequently punctuated the song with 'dramatic' interjections. Among his memorable performances were his histrionic rendition of the Tom Jones hit "Delilah", his hilarious version of "Send in the Clowns" and his heroic interpretation of the Liza Minnelli's theme-song "Liza with a Z", which Norman introduced by guilelessly expressing surprise at the fact that no-one except "Miss Lisa Minnulli" had ever attempted the song. McDonald is in real life an accomplished blues harmonica player (he jammed with Frank Zappa in an interview recording during Zappa's second Australian tour) and many of Norman's musical performances were regularly punctuated by poorly executed and inappropriate harmonica playing, such as in his rendition of the Billy Joel signature tune "Piano Man".

Norman's distinctive interview "shtick" included several recurring features. He habitually presented himself as ill-prepared and under-researched, seeming largely ignorant of and/or uninterested in his guests' achievements, although he was always quick to exploit any chance that their celebrity status might enable him to achieve one of his ambitions, such as being chosen to star in a cigarette ad (which he eventually achieved with 'Dukes' Cigarettes), or winning a Gold Logie.

Norman would further undercut his guests's star status by linking any aspect of their lives and careers to the most mundane features of his own life; he also habitually employed malapropisms and made a particular feature of mis-pronouncing stars' names, or apparently mistaking them for someone else. In his debut show he repeatedly referred to wealthy Sydney socialite Lady Mary Fairfax as "Mrs Lady Fairfax" and in a later show he introduced progressive union leader Jack Mundey as "Mister Jack Mondaay" -- a satirical inversion of the Australian habit of pronouncing the morphograph '-day' as '-dee' in the days of the week (e.g. "Sat'dee" for "Saturday").

As the series developed McDonald and his team introduced additional live and pre-taped segments including:

"Norman's Dreamtime" -- a mock-fairytale segment in which Gunston regaled a group of increasingly bored children with readings from a book of iconic Australian fables, with titles such as "Why Underpants Ride Up"

"Consumer Straight Talk" -- helpful tips on alternative uses for everyday household items, which later evolved into the even more grandiose-sounding "Spaceship Southern Hemisphere"

a weekly review of the show's ratings over previous weeks, with suggestions on how viewers and the studio audience might help them skyrocket; later in Series 1 this focused on Norman's increasingly desperate campaign to win the coveted Gold Logie -- which is, ironically, exactly what transpired at the 1976 Logies.

in Series 2 Gunston presented (but did not appear in) a 3-minute satirical 'micro-soap' called ''Checkout Chicks'', which parodied current Australian TV soap operas and starred actresses well-known for their appearances in such programs, including ''Number 96'' stars Abigail and Philippa Baker, ''Class of 74'' star Anne Louise Lambert, who went on to star in ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (in which McDonald also appeared in a 'straight' role).

Stage settings were defiantly downmarket and rooted in Australian suburbia and kitsch RSL club stylings — after being introduced, bemused guests were offered their choice of dubious delicacies (such as [[pineapple doughnuts or the infamous Chiko Roll) from Norman's hot food bar, before being invited to sit on his vinyl-clad "night-and-day" (a venerable Australian term for sofa bed). Perhaps the most memorable example of this was his interview of Edward Woodward and Michele Dotrice, during which he performed his version of Othello 'for the rugby leagues clubs', which involved him squirting tomato sauce over a ventriloquists's dummy, reducing Woodward to helpless laughter.

Gunston's personal appearance satirised club performers and TV interviewers of the time — for the studio segments he wore an ill-fitting blue lurex tuxedo jacket (wrongly buttoned) and the fly on his (too short) trousers was habitually left undone, with the shirt-tail poking out through the zip. Gunston also adopted a deliberately bad comb over hairstyle to partially cover his balding head. One of his visual trademarks was the small pieces of tissue paper applied to his pasty white face to cover supposed shaving cuts. This comic device led to his memorable exchange with visiting American actress Sally Struthers -- noting Norman's apparent shaving cuts, she kindly suggested that perhaps Gunston should use an electric razor; the nonplussed Norman replied "Uh, I do", at which point Struthers collapsed in a fit of laughter.

Gunston performed subversive TV interviews with many major celebrities -- during a Wings press conference he quipped to Linda McCartney: 'That's funny, you don't look Japanese.' (referencing Yoko Ono),; other famous victims included Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Charlton Heston, and Muhammad Ali. Perhaps Norman's most well known interview was with Keith Moon at Charlton stadium in 1976. Moon famously ended his brief encounter with Norman by tipping Vodka over his head and yelling "Piss off, you Australian faggot" (it's debatable who ended up looking sillier).

McDonald was one of the pioneers of the satirical "ambush" interview technique, which was founded on his considerable improvisational acting skills and precise comic timing. The "Gunston Method" relied on the fact that, especially in the early days of the series, the Norman persona was still relatively unknown in in his home country, and completely unknown outside Australia. Thus, he was successfully able to hide behind the guise of a fully-rounded and highly plausible character who appears to be stupid in order to throw his otherwise media-savvy quarry off their guard. This caused various results, from hilarity (Sally Struthers and Cheech and Chong), to clever play-alongs like Muhammad Ali ("I'm punchy - what's your excuse?") to bewilderment (Warren Beatty), to complete outrage (Rudolf Nureyev, Michael Cole).

The Gunston technique has since been employed by many comedians. In both style and appearance, Paul Kaye's character Dennis Pennis was strongly reminiscent of Gunston. It later had a very successful revival thanks to the British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen through his characters Ali G, Borat and Brüno. Canadian comedian and actor Martin Short also employed a similar technique with his best-known character, the fawning, morbidly obese celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick; another notable resemblance between Glick and Norman is the Glick show's "fairytale" segment "Lalawood Fables", which is very similar to the "Norman's Dreamtime" segments of the Gunston show, in which the host reads a satirical mock-fable (intercut with pre-produced vision) to a group of assembled children. The Australian satirical comedy team The Chaser have also frequently used the Gunston Method to ambush unwitting targets—examples include the Julian Morrow character the "Citizens' Infringment Officer", and the team's now-legendary stunt in which they managed to penetrate a tight security cordon around the APEC Forum, despite the fact that Chas Licciardello was masquerading as Osama Bin Laden.

Through sheer good luck, Gunston was immortalised in Australian political history when, on the morning of 11 November 1975, McDonald and his film crew - who happened to be in Canberra at the time - found out that the Labor government led by Gough Whitlam had just been dismissed by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr. On hearing the news, McDonald and his crew raced to Parliament House, where they were able to film McDonald (as Gunston) briefly addressing the assembled crowd, only moments before Whitlam and the Governor-General's Official Secretary David Smith appeared for the reading of the now-famous proclamation announcing Whitlam's dismissal.

In 1976, the ABC aired a third season of ''The Norman Gunston Show''. By this stage, increased production budgets afforded Gunston more opportunities for overseas interviews, including Malcolm Muggeridge, Michael Caine, John Sturges, Glenda Jackson, John Stonehouse, and Rudolph Nureyev. One memorable encounter with Frank Zappa ended with Zappa and Norman duetting respectively on guitar and harmonica in a spontaneous blues jam (McDonald is in fact a proficient harmonica player). As the jam concluded, McDonald threw in a witty musical quote from the well-known ABC news theme, an action which also gave a clever nod to Zappa's well-known proclivity for inserting musical quotes such as TV themes into his work.

In November 1976, a specially prepared 45 minute UK Gunston TV special was screened on BBC2 TV. Some of Gunston's guests on the show included Diana Dors and Tony Greig.

After the third and final ABC TV season finished in late 1976, Gunston was popular enough to approach commercial TV networks. In particular, the Seven Network showed interest in producing another ''Norman Gunston'' series. Because of McDonald's other commitments, the series did not commence production until early 1978.

Between July–September 1977, Norman Gunston was included in the 8-episode ABC TV series, ''The Garry McDonald Show''. Other characters were also played by McDonald, including Harry Butler (Harry Butler in the wild), and Mo McCackie.

Channel 7 years

In 1978, the Australian Seven Network aired another Norman Gunston series, which continued over an 18-month period till 1979. Ten 60 minute episodes were produced by John Eastway and ATN7. Highlights of this series were also screened on UK Channel 4 TV from November to December 1982.

In February and March 1981, Channel 7 aired a program called ''Gunston's Australia'', which intended to show the Gunston character approaching the end of his shelf life. In a satirical reference to personalities like former ABC current affairs host Bill Peach, the series parodied the perennial Australian TV practice of hiring celebrities to host magazine-style programs after leaving the show that had brought them to fame. Wearing a safari jacket and shorts, Gunston travelled around outback Australia, interfering and adventuring in high and low places in his usual cack-handed manner. This series was later screened from February to March 1983 on UK Channel 4 TV.

In 1985, a 2-hour video was released titled, ''The Gunston Tapes''. This was a compilation of interviews and comic sketches from the first, second and third 1975-1976 ABC TV series. McDonald also temporarily revived the Gunston character for the purpose of narrating the video.

In February and March 1993, McDonald briefly revived the Gunston character for the Channel 7 network. However, by the time the series premiered McDonald was suffering from severe depression, and his much-publicised nervous breakdown and abrupt departure saw the series prematurely terminated. A 3-set DVD compilation of the 1993 series was subsequently released in 2003.

During the late 1990s, Foxtel's The Comedy Channel repeated all but the premiere episode from the 1975-76 ABC series. (A previously unaired pilot was screened in place of episode one, which is presumed lost.) This marked the first time the series had been aired since the late 1970s. The same episodes have been screened again, albeit in random order, from 2008 as part of the channel's Aussie Gold block hosted by Frank Woodley.

Recording career

Gunston's single record releases sold sufficiently well to enter the Australian top 40 charts. Parody tributes included Punk rock (''I might be a Punk but I love ya baby''), Sherbet (''Howzat''), ABBA (''Salute to ABBA''), KISS (''KISS Army''), Boz Scaggs (''Nylon Degrees''), Billy Ray Cyrus (''Achy Breaky Heart''), and Peter Allen (''I Go to Rio)'' (Allen was present when Gunston parodied him on ABC's pop show Countdown, and didn't seem amused, although he would have been aware of the character having previously appeared on Gunston's ABC show as a guest.)

In 1976, Gunston released an album titled ''The Popular Ballad Animal'', which covered both contemporary and classic era compositions, several of which Norman had performed on his show, including his theme song, "I Who Have Nothing". In particular, notable tracks include Gunston's bizarre but inspired interpretations of Liza Minnelli's "Liza With a Z", David Gates' "If", Tom Jones' "Delilah", Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns", "Jailhouse Rock", "Piano Man", "Vesti La Giubba", "A little love and understanding", "Daddy what if?", and the Judy Garland classic "Over the Rainbow".

In 1978, Gunston released another covers album ''Nylon Degrees'' (sending up Boz Scaggs' ''Silk Degrees'' in both title and cover art). His next album, 1984's ''Join The Dots'', included out-takes and previously unreleased rare recordings, title and cover art parodying Culture Club's ''Colour By Numbers''.

Gunston appeared as a guest harmonica player at Frank Zappa's concert at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on 20 January 1976 which was later released as ''FZ:OZ'' (2002).

Program History

1973 The Aunty Jack Show (ABC TV - six B/W episodes).

1974 Wollongong the Brave (ABC TV).

1975 The Norman Gunston Show - season 1 (ABC TV - nine 30 minute colour episodes).

1975 The Norman Gunston Show - season 2 (ABC TV - eight 30 minute colour episodes).

1976 The Norman Gunston Show - season 3 (ABC TV - eight 30 minute colour episodes).

1976 The Norman Gunston Show (UK BBC TV one-off 60 minute special).

1977 The Garry McDonald Show (ABC TV - eight 30 minute colour episodes).

1978-79 The Norman Gunston Show (7 Network - ten 60 minute episodes).

1981 Gunston's Australia (7 Network 1981 - eight 30 minute episodes).

1993 The Norman Gunston Show (7 Network - five 30 minute episodes).

1975 season 1 ABC TV Episodes

Series 1 episode 1 (18 May 1975)

Premier Norman Gunston Show episode filmed at ABN2 Gore Hill, Sydney TV studios. Norman Gunston interviews Mary Fairfax, Kerrie Biddell, and Rolf Harris.

Series 1 episode 2 (May 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Prince Leonard and Lord Davies from the Hutt River Province, Western Australia; Rick Morosi (Junie Morosi's brother); Colleen Hewett before her departure overseas; Mrs Phillis Johnson; and Edward Woodward. Norman's dreamtime segment. Gunston concludes the show by performing "Keep You Satisfied".

Series 1 episode 3 (June 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Stratford Johns; Chelsea Brown; Mrs Andrea (local talk back radio personality); and Fred Nile. Norman's dreamtime: "How Josyln Mathew got her spots". Consumer straight talk: Chewing gum special report. Gunston concludes the show by performing "If (They Made Me a King)".

Series 1 episode 4 (June 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Ray Barrett; Edith Dahl, and Jack Thompson. Australian rock group Skyhooks perform "Horror Movie". Norman's dreamtime segment: "Why underpants ride up". Consumer straight talk: Venus flytrap.

Series 1 episode 5 (June 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Jack Mundey; Paul Graham, Warren Beatty. Australian harmonica performing trio, The Horrie Dargie Trio, perform Theme From "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. Paul Graeme wrestles alligator. Gunston performs "Sweet Caroline".

Series 1 episode 6 (June 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews the Carlton Football team in their dressing room; Mike Willesee; Marcia Hines; and Dr. Bertram Wainer. Gunston reports on "The joys of funny business". Gunston concludes show by performing "Liza with a Z".

Series 1 episode 7 (July 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Al Grassby; Bobbie Sykes; Little Pattie; and Cheech & Chong. Norman's dreamtime segment: "The beach umbrella finds Mr. Right". Consumer straight talk segment. Gunston closes show by performing "I Got You Babe" with Little Pattie.

Series 1 episode 8 (July 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Michele Dotrice; Edward Woodward; Beatrice Faust, and Peter Wherrett. Consumer straight talk segment: super shopping trolley reviewed by Peter Wherrett. Gunston closes show by performing "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".

Series 1 episode 9 (July 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Garry Glitter. Norman Gunstan stands outside Parliament House Canberra. Gunston performs "Here Come the Jets". Gunston promotional film for "Something or Other" brand cigarette commercial. Norman's nymphette 1975 competition final. Consumer straight talk - Norman's last eight video tapes. ABC chairman, Professor Downing announces new Norman Gunston series due to commence in early September 1975. Gunston concludes show by performing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me".

1975 season 2 ABC TV Episodes

Season Two featured recurring sketch, ''The Checkout Chicks''. This sketch, a send-up of melodramatic soap operas set in a supermarket, mostly featured former cast members of the then-popular serial ''Number 96'': Abigail, Vivienne Garrett, Candy Raymond, Philippa Baker, Judy Lynn, Anne Louise Lambert.

Series 2 episode 1 (September 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Joe Frazier; Muhammad Ali, Lady Fairfax; and Winifred Atwell. Special report on GI cordial nutrition. Norman's $400,000 slice of the good life competition. Gunston commences show with "Colour my world" and concludes with "Pinball Wizard".

Series 2 episode 2 (September 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Ray Charles; Junie Morosi; Peter Allen; and Telly Savalas. Episode one of Checkout Chicks. Spaceship Southern Hemisphere incorporating consumer straight talk. Gunston concludes show with "Send in the clowns".

Series 2 episode 3 (September 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Australian rock group Ayers Rock; Denise Drysdale; and President Nixon's security guard. Special announcement to the nation regarding Norman's false girlfriend. Norman's dreamtime: "Why the orange juice gets swished around in that glass thing". Junior jaws kitchen tidy bin review.

Series 2 episode 4 (September 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Hugh Hefner, Don Dunston, and Barry Crocker.

Series 2 episode 5 (October 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Renée Geyer; Paul & Linda McCartney; Denny Laine; and radio talk-back priest Fr. Jim McLaren. Special report on keeping pets in units.

Series 2 episode 6 (October 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews John Gorton; The Seekers; and Miss Australia 1975; Sally Struthers. Checkout chicks. Special report on LA smog verses Australia smog. Gunston concludes show by performing Vesti La Giubba.

Series 2 episode 7 (December 1975)

Norman Gunston interviews Debbie Byrne; Senator Albert Field; Michael Cole; and Vidal Sassoon. Norman Gunston appears on the steps of Parliament House with Gough Whitlam - 11 November 1975. Gunston concludes show with "Delilah".

Series 2 episode 8 (January 1976)

Norman Gunston interviews Edith Head; and Frank Zappa. Norman's dreamtime: "Why Aunty Pat took the kittens to the vet". Norman look alike awards 1975. Gunston concludes show with "I who have nothing".

1976 season 3 ABC TV Episodes

Series 3 episode 1 (September 1976)

Norman Gunston interviews Malcolm Muggeridge; Frank Hardie; The Ink Spots; and Rudolf Nureyev. Gunston reports on the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. Gunston concludes show with ABBA melody.

Series 3 episode 2 Norman Gunston interviews Julie Ismay, Miss Australia 1976; Michael Cain; Brenda Kristen; Tim Taylor; and Tony Greig (from BBC2 UK special). Norman attempts to speak with UK prime minister. Special report on Cambridge University life. Gunston concludes show with "A taste of water".

Series 3 episode 3

Norman Gunston interviews Australian Olympic team; Diana Trask; Margaret Fulton; and John Stonehouse. Norman's dreamtime: "How the garden hose got where it is today". Special report on storing food under the house. Gunston concludes show with "Howzat".

Series 3 episode 4

Norman Gunston interviews 1976 ABC chairman; Fred Daley; and Glenda Jackson. 1976 budget report. Royal marines song contest. Norman will do his best segment: "How hundreds and thousands are made". Report on farming in your own flat. Gunston concludes show with "Don't tell me what to say".

Series 3 episode 5

Norman Gunston interviews Leyland Brothers; John Sturgess; Donald Smith; and Mary Whitehouse. Gunston concludes show with "Jailhouse Rock".

Series 3 episode 6

Norman Gunston interviews Jack Brabham; and Malcolm Fraser. Gunston concludes show with "Piano Man".

Series 3 episode 7

Norman Gunston interviews Caroline Jones; Delilah; and Diana Dors (from BBC2 UK special). Marathon telethon 1976. Norman's dreamtime: "How the shaving cream gets in a lather". Gunston concludes show with duet with Delilah.

Series 3 episode 8

Norman Gunston interviews Vera Lynn, Margaret Thatcher, and George Davis. Keith Moon pours vodka bottle over Norman's head.

BBC2 45-minute Norman Gunston special

(19 November 1976)

Michael Caine, Diana Dors, Tony Greig, Glenda Jackson, Malcolm Muggeridge, Diane Solomon.

1978-1979 ATN7 Episodes

Series 1 episode 1 (5 April 1978)

Interviews: Henry Winkler, Phil Silvers, Charles Collinson, Billy Carter. Guests include: John Singleton, and Colleen Hewett.

Series 1 episode 2 (1978)

Interviews: James Garner, James Franciscus, Robert Stack, Elke Summer. Guests includes: Bob Simpson, Judy Connelly, 'Saturday Night Fever' take off.

Series 1 episode 3 (1978)

Interviews: Dawn Fraser, Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, John Farnham and Martin Landau.

Series 1 episode 4 (11 October 1978)

Series 1 episode 5 (1978)

Series 2 episode 1 (1979)

Series 2 episode 2 (1979)

Series 2 episode 3 (29 August 1979)

Series 2 episode 4 (1979)

Series 2 episode 5 Xmas special (December 1979)

Summary: Norman Gunston's Christmas special includes take off of Blondies' single "Heart of Glass"; interviews with Karen Black; Lee Marvin; hippies in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco; Leif Garrett; Elliot Gould; Henry Winkler; Ed Asner; George Segal; Zsa Zsa Gabor; Ricky Schroder; the Bee Gees; Robert Stigwood. Also shows Norman Gunston doing songs "Use Your Hanky" and a take-off of the "Rocky" theme.

Gunston's Australia 1981 ATN7 episodes

Series 1 episode 1 (February 1981)

Summary: Garry Mcdonald (Norman Gunston) in a runners starting position under a banner with 'GI book of records' wearing summer clothing and a backpack.

Series 1 episode 2 (1981)

Summary: Garry Mcdonald (Norman Gunston) wearing safari jacket and shorts crouching as he uses spakfilla on a red dirt hill. An Ansett-ana bag sits nearby (the same bag appears in the 1993 series).

Series 1 episode 3 (1981)

Summary: Garry Mcdonald (Norman Gunston) as Dr. Strange 1981; Grammy awards report.

Series 1 episode 4 (1981)

Series 1 episode 5 (1981)

Series 1 episode 6 (1981)

Series 1 episode 7 (1981)

Series 1 episode 8 (1981)

The Norman Gunston Show

(Seven Network - February to March 1993)

episode 1

Shirley MacLaine, Ian Botham, Dr John Hewson, musical guest Girlfriend, Gunston sings 'Acky Breaky Heart'

episode 2

Paul Mercurio, Billy Crystal, Julian Clary, musical guest Sonia Dada, Gunston sings 'Simply Irresistible '

episode 3

Guns N' Roses, Lionel Richie, Laurie and Noeline Donaher, musical guest Mahotella Queens, Gunston sings 'I will always love you'

episode 4 (hosted by Mary Coustas as Effie)

Paul Keating, Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Gough Whitlam, Warwick and Joanne Capper, Brian Austen Green, musical guest The Dukes

episode 5 (hosted by Maryanne Fahey as Kylie Mole)

Jeff Fenech, Jane Flemming, Corbin Bernsen, Colonel Tom Parker, musical guest Peter Andre

episode 6 (Top Gunston part 1)

repackaged highlights from previous series

episode 7 (Top Gunston part 2)

repackaged highlights from previous series

References

External links

Norman Gunston on nostalgia central

Search the National Film and Sound Archive National Collection of Screen & Sound for Gunston's radio interview and television appearances

''Norman Gunston'' at Laughterlog.com - Article, episode guide and list of recordings

Category:Australian comedians Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian satirists Category:Gold Logie winners Category:Living people

Honorific-prefix	The Honourable
Name	John Howard
Honorific-suffix	AC, SSI
Order	25th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007
Term start	11 March 1996
Term end	3 December 2007
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-general	William DeanePeter HollingworthMichael Jeffery
Deputy	Tim Fischer (1996–99)John Anderson (1999–05)Mark Vaile (2005–07)
Predecessor	Paul Keating
Successor	Kevin Rudd
Order2	29th
Office2	Treasurer of Australia
Primeminister2	Malcolm Fraser
Term start2	19 November 1977
Term end2	11 March 1983
Predecessor2	Phillip Lynch
Successor2	Paul Keating
Office3	22nd Leader of the Opposition Elections: 1987, 1996
Term start3	5 September 1985
Term end3	9 May 1989
Deputy3	Neil Brown (1985–87) Andrew Peacock (1987–89)
Predecessor3	Andrew Peacock
Successor3	Andrew Peacock
Term start4	30 January 1995
Term end4	11 March 1996
Deputy4	Peter Costello
Predecessor4	Alexander Downer
Successor4	Kim Beazley
Constituency mp5	Bennelong
Parliament5	Australian
Term start5	18 May 1974
Term end5	24 November 2007
Predecessor5	John Cramer
Successor5	Maxine McKew
Birth date	July 26, 1939
Birth place	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Party	Liberal Party of Australia
Residence	Wollstonecraft, New South Wales
Spouse	Janette Howard
Alma mater	University of Sydney
Profession	Solicitor
Religion	Anglican
Signature	John Howard Signature.svg }}

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.

Howard was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 to 2007, representing the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. He served as Treasurer in the Fraser government of from 1977 to 1983. He was Leader of the Liberal Party and Coalition Opposition from 1985 to 1989, which included the 1987 federal election against Bob Hawke. He was re-elected as Leader of the Opposition in 1995.

Howard led the Liberal-National Coalition to victory at the 1996 federal election, defeating Paul Keating's Labor government and ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. The Howard Government was re-elected at the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections, presiding over a period of strong economic growth and prosperity. Major issues for the Howard Government included taxation, industrial relations, immigration, the Iraq war, and Aboriginal relations. Howard's coalition government was defeated at the 2007 election by the Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd. Howard also lost his own parliamentary seat at the election; he was the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce in 1929, to do so.

Early life

John Howard is the fourth son of Mona (''née'' Kell) and Lyall Howard. His parents were married in 1925. His eldest brother Stanley was born in 1926, followed by Walter in 1929, and Robert (Bob) in 1936. Lyall Howard was an admirer of Winston Churchill, and a sympathiser with the New Guard.

Howard grew up in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood in a Methodist family. His mother had been an office worker until her marriage. His father and his paternal grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They also ran two Dulwich Hill petrol stations where John Howard worked as a boy. Lyall Howard died in 1955 when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of John (or "Jack" as he was also known).

Howard suffered a hearing impairment in his youth, leaving him with a slight speech impediment, and he continues to wear a hearing aid. It also influenced him in subtle ways, limiting his early academic performance; encouraging a reliance on an excellent memory; and in his mind ruling out becoming a barrister as a likely career.

Howard attended the publicly funded state schools Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys' High School. Howard won a citizenship prize in his final year at Earlwood (presented by local politician Eric Willis), and subsequently represented his secondary school at debating as well as cricket and rugby. Cricket remained a life-long hobby. In his final year at school he took part in a radio show hosted by Jack Davey, ''Give It a Go'' broadcast on the commercial radio station, 2GB, and a recording of the show survives. After gaining his Leaving Certificate, he studied law at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1961, and subsequently practising as a solicitor for twelve years.

Howard married fellow Liberal Party member Janette Parker in 1971, with whom he had three children: Melanie (1974), Tim (1977) and Richard (1980).

Early political career

Howard joined the Liberal Party in 1957. He held office in the New South Wales Liberal Party on the State Executive and served as President of the Young Liberals (1962–64), the party youth organisation. Howard supported Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, although has since said there were "aspects of it that could have been handled and explained differently".

At the 1963 federal election, Howard acted as campaign manager in his local seat of Parkes for the successful candidacy of Tom Hughes who defeated the 20 year Labor incumbent.

In 1967 with the support of party power brokers, John Carrick and Eric Willis, he was endorsed as candidate for the marginal suburban state seat of Drummoyne, held by ALP member Reg Coady. Howard's mother sold the family home in Earlwood and rented a house with him at Five Dock, a suburb within the electorate. At the election in February 1968, in which the incumbent state Liberal government was returned to office, Howard narrowly lost to Coady, despite campaigning vigorously. Howard and his mother subsequently returned to Earlwood, moving to a house on the same street where he grew up.

At the 1974 federal election, Howard successfully contested the Sydney suburban seat of Bennelong and became a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives during the Gough Whitlam-led Labor Government. Howard backed Malcolm Fraser for the leadership of the Liberal Party against Billy Snedden following the 1974 election. When Fraser won office in December 1975, Howard was appointed Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs, a position in which he served until 1977. At this stage, he followed the protectionist and pro-regulation stance of Fraser and the Liberal Party.

Federal Treasurer (1977–1983)

In December 1977, at the age of 38, Howard was appointed Treasurer. During his five years in the position, he became an adherent of free-market economics, which was challenging economic orthodoxies in place for most of the century. He came to favour tax reform including broad-based taxation (later the GST), a freer industrial system including the dismantling of the centralised wage-fixing system, the abolition of compulsory trade unionism, privatisation and deregulation.

In 1978, the Fraser government instigated a committee of inquiry, the Campbell Committee, to investigate financial system reforms. The impetus for the commission came, not from Howard, but from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Howard supported the Campbell report, but adopted an incremental approach with Cabinet, as there was wide opposition to deregulation within the government and the treasury. The process of reform began before the committee reported 2½ years later, with the introduction of the tender system for the sale of Treasury notes in 1979, and Treasury bonds in 1982. Ian Macfarlane (Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, 1996–2006) described these reforms as "second only in importance to the float of the Australian dollar in 1983." In 1981 he proposed a broad-based indirect tax with compensatory cuts in personal rates; however, cabinet rejected it citing both inflationary and political reasons. After the free-marketeers or "drys" of the Liberals challenged the protectionist policies of Minister for Industry and Commerce Phillip Lynch, they shifted their loyalties to Howard. Following an unsuccessful leadership challenge by Andrew Peacock to unseat Fraser as prime minister, Howard was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party in April 1982. His election depended largely on the support of the "drys", and he became the champion of the growing free-market lobby in the party.

Fraser's negotiations with the ACTU saw him lose control of a wages explosion in 1982 just as the mining boom had ended. The economic crises of the early 1980s brought Howard into conflict with the economically conservative Fraser. As the economy headed towards the worst recession since the 1930s, Keynesian Fraser pushed an expansionary fiscal position much to Howard's and Treasury's horror. With his authority as treasurer being flouted, Howard considered resigning in July 1982, but, after discussions with his wife and senior advisor John Hewson (Liberal Party leader himself from 1990 to 1994), he decided to "tough it out".

The Fraser Government with Howard as Treasurer lost the 1983 election to the Labor Party led by Bob Hawke. Over the course of the 1980s, the Liberal party came to accept the free-market policies that Fraser had resisted and Howard had espoused; namely low protection, decentralisation of wage fixation, financial deregulation, a broadly-based indirect tax, and the rejection of counter-cyclical fiscal policy.

Opposition years (1983–1996)

Following the 1983 defeat of the Fraser government and Fraser's subsequent resignation from parliament, Howard contested the Liberal leadership but was defeated by Andrew Peacock. Remaining Deputy Leader of the parliamentary party, Howard became Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Party were defeated by Hawke and Labor at the 1984 election. In 1985, as Labor's position in opinion polls improved, Peacock's popularity sank, and Howard's profile rose, leadership speculation persisted. Peacock said he would no longer accept Howard as deputy unless he offered assurances that he would not challenge for the leadership. Following Howard's refusal to offer such an assurance, Peacock sought, in September 1985, to replace him with John Moore as Deputy Leader. The party room re-elected Howard as Deputy on 5 September (38 votes to 31), and, believing his position untenable, Peacock immediately resigned the leadership. With Peacock not contesting the ensuing Liberal Party leadership ballot, Howard defeated Jim Carlton 57 votes to 6, and became Leader of the Opposition.

;Leader of the opposition and new economic policy Howard was in effect the Liberal party's first pro-market leader in the conservative coalition and spent the next two years working to revise Liberal policy away from that of Fraser's. In his own words he was an "economic radical" and a social conservative. Referring to the pro-market liberalism of the 1980s, Howard, famously said in July 1986 that "The times will suit me". That year the economy was seen to be in crisis with a 40% devaluation of the Australian dollar, a marked increase in the current account deficit and the loss of the Federal Government's triple A rating.

To capitalise on Coalition disunity, Hawke called the 1987 election six months early. In addition to the Howard–Peacock rivalry, Queensland National Party criticism of the federal Liberal and National leadership led to a split in the Coalition whereby Nationals ran against Liberals, and culminated in the "Joh for Canberra" campaign. Keating successfully campaigned against John Howard's proposed tax changes forcing Howard to admit a double-counting in the proposal, and emphasising to the electorate that the package would mean at that stage undisclosed cuts to government services. The Hawke Government was re-elected with an increased majority.

;Howard's social agenda In his social agenda, Howard promoted the traditional family and was antipathetic to the promotion of multiculturalism at the expense of a shared Australian identity. The immigration policy, ''One Australia'', outlined a vision of "one nation and one future" and opposed multiculturalism. In a radio interview discussing multiculturalism Howard suggested that to support "social cohesion" the rate of Asian immigration be "slowed down a little". The comments divided opinion within the Coalition, and undermined Howard's standing amongst Liberal party figures including federal and state Ministers, intellectual opinion makers, business leaders, and within the Asia Pacific. Prime Minister Hawke moved a motion to affirm that race or ethnicity would not be used as immigrant selection criteria to which three Liberal MPs crossed the floor and two abstained. Many Liberals later nominated the issue as instrumental in Howard subsequently losing the leadership in 1989.

In line with "One Australia's" rejection of Aboriginal land rights, Howard said the idea of an Aboriginal treaty was ''"repugnant to the ideals of One Australia"'' and commented ''"I don't think it is wrong, racist, immoral or anything, for a country to say 'we will decide what the cultural identity and the cultural destiny of this country will be and nobody else."''

;Loss of the leadership As the country's economic position worsened in 1989, public opinion moved away from Labor, but Howard was unable to translate this into a firm opinion poll lead for himself and the Coalition. In February, Liberal Party president and prominent businessman, John Elliott, said confidentially to Andrew Peacock that he would support him in a leadership challenge against Howard. Following months of plotting by Elliot, Peacock and supporters, in May a surprise leadership coup was launched, ousting Howard as Liberal leader. When asked that day whether he could become Liberal leader again, Howard famously likened it to ''"Lazarus with a triple bypass"''. The loss of the Liberal Party leadership to Peacock deeply affected Howard, who admitted he would occasionally drink too much. Declining Peacock's offer of Shadow Education, Howard went to the backbench and a new period of party disunity ensued. Howard served as Shadow Minister for Industry, Technology and Communications, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on the Public Service, Chairman of the Manpower and Labour Market Reform Group, Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations and Manager of Opposition Business in the House.

Following the Coalition's 1990 election loss, Peacock was replaced with former Howard staffer Dr. John Hewson. Howard was a supporter of Hewson's economic program, with a Goods and Services Tax (GST) as its centrepiece. After Hewson lost the "unloseable" 1993 election to Paul Keating, Howard unsuccessfully challenged Hewson for the leadership. In 1994, he was again passed over for the leadership, which went to Alexander Downer. In a 7 January 1995 newspaper article (and in 2002 as Prime Minister), Howard recanted his 1988 remarks on curbing Asian immigration.

;Opposition leader again In January 1995, leaked internal Liberal Party polling showed that with gaffe-prone Downer as leader, the Coalition had slim chance of holding its marginal seats in the next election, let alone of winning government. Media speculation of a leadership spill ended when, on 26 January 1995, Downer resigned as Liberal Leader and Howard was elected unopposed to replace him. The Coalition subsequently opened a large lead over Labor in most opinion polls, and Howard overtook his old nemesis Paul Keating as preferred Prime Minister.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of 1993, Howard revised his earlier statements against Medicare and Asian immigration, describing Australia as "a unique intersection between Europe, North America and Asia". This allowed Howard to focus on the economy and memory of the early 1990s recession, and on the longevity of the Labor government, which in 1996 had been in power for 13 years.

Prime minister

Election win and first term

By the time the writs were dropped 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 many 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. With a 45-seat majority—the second-biggest majority in Australian history (behind only Fraser's 55-seat majority in 1975)--Howard came into office in a strong position. By this time, as he put it, he had "very clear views on where I wanted to take the country". 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 John 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—was criticised in the press as an endorsement of her views. Howard said that she was entitled to express her opinion, that many others would share it, and that to denounce her would "elevate it". Howard repudiated her views seven months after Hanson's controversial maiden parliamentary speech.

Following the Wik Decision of the High Court in 1996, John Howard's government moved swiftly to legislate limitations on its possible implications through the so-called Ten-Point Plan. From 1997, Howard spear-headed the Coalition push to introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the 1998 election. Before winning the Prime Ministership, Howard said that he considered the Coalition's defeat in 1993 to be a rejection of the GST, and as a result it would "never ever" be part of Coalition policy. 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 and its members at times feared being a "one-term wonder". The popularity of Pauline Hanson, and the new restrictions on gun ownership drew many 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. He ultimately finished with a fairly comfortable 56 percent of the two-party preferred vote.

Second term

In 1998, Howard convened a Constitutional Convention which decided in principle that Australia should become a Republic. At the convention Howard confirmed himself as a monarchist, and said that of the Republican options, he preferred the minimalist model. Howard outlined his support for retaining the status quo on the basis that it had provided a long period of stability and whilst he said there was no question that Australia was a fully independent nation, he believed that the "separation of the ceremonial and executive functions of government" and the presence of a neutral "defender of constitutional integrity" was an advantage in government and that no republican model would be as effective in providing such an outcome as the Australian constitutional monarchy. Despite opinion polls suggesting Australians favoured a republic, a 1999 referendum rejected the model chosen by the convention.

Although new Indonesian President B.J. Habibie had some months earlier agreed to grant special autonomy to Indonesian-occupied East Timor, his subsequent snap decision for a referendum on the territory's independence was triggered by 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 argued this was inappropriate, because "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies." Howard did offer this personal apology before the release of the Report: "I feel deep sorrow for those of my fellow Australians who suffered injustices under the practices of past generations towards indigenous people. Equally, I am sorry for the hurt and trauma many here today may continue to feel, as a consequence of these practices”.

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. With Howard telling Cabinet he would not be "sacrificed on the pyre of ideological purity", 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. Following the Liberal Party win at the Aston by-election, Howard said that the Coalition was "back in the game". 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, 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 and said that the invocation of the treaty ''"demonstrates Australia's steadfast commitment to work with the United States.”'' In October, he committed Australian military personnel to the war in Afghanistan. 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."

Howard responded to the 2002 Bali bombing, in which 88 Australian citizens were killed, by calling on Australians to "wrap their arms around the people of Indonesia" and said that, while affected, Australia remained "strong and free and open and tolerant". Howard re-dedicated his government to the "War on Terror", saying the Bali bombing was proof that no country was "immune" to the effects of terrorism.

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. Howard said that the invasion to "disarm Iraq...is right, it is lawful, and it is in Australia’s national interest." He later said that the decision to go into Iraq was the most difficult he made as Prime Minister. 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 opposition leader, Simon Crean, and his approval dropped compared to before the war.

Throughout 2002 and 2003 Howard had increased his opinion poll lead over Labor 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 campaigned on the theme of trust, asking: "Who do you trust to keep the economy strong, and protect family living standards? Who do you trust to keep interest rates low?" Howard attacked Latham's economic record as Mayor of Liverpool City Council and attacked Labor's economic history saying: "It is an historic fact that interest rates have always gone up under Labor governments over the last 30 years, because Labor governments spend more than they collect and drive budgets into deficit ... So it will be with a Latham Labor government... I will guarantee that interest rates are always going to be lower under a Coalition government." The election resulted in an increased Coalition majority in the House of Representatives and the first, albeit slim, government majority in the Senate since 1981. For the second time since becoming Prime Minister, Howard had to go to preferences in order to win another term in his own seat winning 53.3 percent of the two-party preferred vote. On 21 December 2004, Howard became the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.

Fourth term

In 2006, with the government now controlling both houses of parliament for the first time since the Fraser government, 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 enjoyed by 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. Howard often cited economic management as a strong point of the government, and 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 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; and there were calls for Costello to either challenge or quit. 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 said that, if elected, he would stand down during the next term, and anointed Costello as his successor. Peter Costello commented, in 2007 whilst still in government, that "The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms of interest rates and inflation... he had not been a great reformer," and questioned Howard's account of his conflicts with the Prime Minister Fraser.

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 – and was even described as a "revolutionary" in his opposition to unionism. 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.

2007 election defeat

Leading up to the 24 November election, the Coalition trailed Labor in the polls since the Labor party elected Kevin Rudd as party leader in late 2006. By the time the writs were issued, it was obvious that the Coalition would not be reelected.

In the election, Howard and his government were soundly defeated, suffering a 23-seat swing to Labor—almost as large as the 29-seat swing that propelled him to power in 1996. Howard lost his seat of Bennelong to former journalist Maxine McKew by 44,685 votes (51.4 percent) to Howard's 42,251 (48.6 percent). 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 percent) of Green voters listed McKew as their second preference.

Howard told a former colleague that losing Bennelong was a "silver lining in the thunder cloud of defeat" as it spared him the ignominy of opposition. He remained in office as caretaker Prime Minister until the formal swearing in of Rudd's government on 3 December. Howard is the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce, to lose his seat in an election.

After the election loss, Costello declined to accept the role of leader of the opposition, and Brendan Nelson was elected as leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party.

Federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane said "it was the failure of Kim Beazley's leadership that had masked voter concerns about Howard". Media analysis of The Australian Election Study, a postal survey of 1873 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 prior to the election campaign.

After politics

In January 2008, John Howard signed with a prominent speaking agency called the Washington Speakers Bureau, joining Tony Blair, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and others. He will be available for two speeches, ''Leadership in the New Century'' and ''The Global Economic Future''.

The Australian and New Zealand cricket boards jointly nominated Howard as their candidate for president of the International Cricket Council. However, his nomination was rejected by the ICC's executive board in Singapore after members from six countries signaled their intention to block the appointment. Howard is currently the chairman of the International Democrat Union, a body of international conservative political parties.

Howard's autobiography ''Lazarus Rising: A Personal and Political Autobiography'' was released on 26 October 2010.

Honours

Recognised as Australian Father of the Year in 1997

Awarded the Centenary Medal on 1 January 2001 Awarded the Star of the Solomon Islands together with Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on 15 June 2005 for their respective roles in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands This award allows him to use the post-nominal letters "SSI"

Received the Woodrow Wilson Award from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the U.S. Smithsonian Institution on 22 August 2005 in Sydney

B'nai B'rith International bestowed its Presidential Gold Medal on Howard in May 2006 Irving Kristol Award, the highest award of the American Enterprise Institute, 5 March 2008 Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service in Government, 6 April 2008 Appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours list "for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, particularly as Prime Minister and through contributions to economic and social policy reform, fostering and promoting Australia's interests internationally, and the development of significant philanthropic links between the business sector, arts and charitable organisations." Received honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in December 2008 for "outstanding statesmanship and leading role on the world stage in promoting democracy and combating international terrorism" and his "remarkable understanding of, and exceptional support for, the State of Israel and his deep friendship with the Australian Jewish community" Awarded the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom on 13 January 2009 by President George W. Bush Honorary doctorate from Bond University, 14 February 2009 His portrait, by Australian artist Shen Jiawei, was hung in the Members' Hall of the Australian Parliament House in 2010 as part of the Historic Memorials Collection

Star of the Solomon Islands

See also

First Howard Ministry

Second Howard Ministry

Third Howard Ministry

Fourth Howard Ministry

References

Bibliography

Grattan, Michelle (2000), 'John Winston Howard', in Michelle Grattan (ed.), ''Australian Prime Ministers'', New Holland, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, Pages 436–463. ISBN 1 86436 756 3

Further reading

;Publications

;Websites

External links

Howard, John (1939-) National Library of Australia, ''Trove, People and Organisation'' record for John Howard

Australia's Prime Ministers: John Howard National Archives of Australia

John Howard addresses a joint session of parliament in Canada, the first Australian Prime Minister to do so since John Curtin in 1944.

John Howard: A political life– a slideshow of John Howard's life

ABC's Four Corners– ''Howard's End''– video

ABC's ''The Howard Years''– video

Past PMs Website

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Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Prime Ministers of Australia Category:Treasurers of Australia Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Category:Australian Leaders of the Opposition Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Bennelong Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Liberal Party of Australia politicians Category:Commonwealth Chairpersons-in-Office Category:Australian monarchists Category:People educated at Canterbury Boys' High School Category:People from Sydney Category:Australian Anglicans Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:University of Sydney alumni Category:Delegates to the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention

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