John Howard

John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939, Sydney) led the Liberal–National Coalition to four consecutive federal election victories (1996, 1998, 2001, 2004) before losing both government and his own seat of Bennelong in 2007 to Labor's Kevin Rudd and Maxine McKew respectively. Trained as a solicitor, he entered Parliament in 1974 and served as Treasurer under Malcolm Fraser from 1977 to 1983.

Domestically, Howard's government is associated with major tax reform, including the introduction of a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2000, sweeping industrial relations changes culminating in the controversial WorkChoices legislation (2005), tightened gun control through the National Firearms Agreement following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, and a hardline border-protection posture exemplified by the 2001 Tampa affair and the so-called "Pacific Solution" for offshore processing of asylum seekers.

In foreign policy, Howard cultivated an exceptionally close alliance with the United States under President George W. Bush, committing Australian forces to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was in Washington during the September 11 attacks and subsequently invoked the ANZUS Treaty. His government led the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) intervention in 1999 and signed the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement in 2004. Howard was a vocal sceptic of the Kyoto Protocol, which Australia did not ratify under his leadership.

He is also remembered for refusing to issue a formal parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians — a step his successor Rudd took in February 2008. Since leaving office, Howard has remained active as a commentator and authored the memoir Lazarus Rising (2010). He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2008.