John Howard

Biography

John Howard was born in 1939 in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood, the fourth son of a First World War veteran who ran petrol stations. He attended Canterbury Boys' High School, graduated in law from the University of Sydney in 1962 and worked as a solicitor, later becoming a partner in a small firm. He joined the Liberal Party in 1957 and was federal president of the Young Liberals from 1962 to 1964.

After narrowly losing a state seat in 1968, he won the federal seat of Bennelong in 1974. Malcolm Fraser made him a minister in 1975 and Treasurer in December 1977, a post he held until the government's defeat in 1983; in it he became a convert to free-market economics. He led the Liberals and the opposition from 1985 to 1989, losing the 1987 election, and was removed by Andrew Peacock, but he returned as leader in January 1995.

Howard won the 1996 election in a landslide and was prime minister until 2007, the second-longest tenure in Australian history. His government tightened gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre, introduced a goods and services tax, and led the international force sent to East Timor. In 2001 his refusal to let the freighter Tampa land rescued asylum seekers, and the attacks of 11 September, helped him win re-election; Australia then joined the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

After a fourth victory in 2004, the unpopular WorkChoices labour reforms and a revived Labor Party under Kevin Rudd led to defeat in November 2007, when Howard also lost his own seat. He then left politics, though he had already become chairman of the International Democrat Union, a grouping of conservative parties, in 2002 and held that post until 2014.