Finally, we have John Howard’s own version of why he remained Liberal leader through to the 2007 election — and then went down, ignominiously and unnecessarily, with the ship.
And a tacky version it is, confirming in his own calibrated words how selfishness, hubris and the wishes of his wife (who elected her again?) prevented an orderly transfer of leadership to Peter Costello, and created the conditions for a humiliating defeat for the political party whose fortunes Howard was supposed to protect.
“I had a plan to retire as prime minister and if Peter Costello had been a better listener, he would have succeeded me,” begins The Australian’s extract on leadership from Lazarus Rising.
And it’s downhill all the way after that. After the 2004 election, he admits that:
“If I stayed and fought yet another election, and were successful, that would take me to 70 before I might properly step down. I thought that would be staying too long and tempting fate… My wife Janette and I kicked the issue around, and I concluded that it would be in the party’s best interests, all things being equal, if I retired before the 2007 election, giving my successor, who I assumed would be Costello, plenty of time to establish himself.”
But as we know, Howard did nothing of the sort, acting at every turn against “the party’s best interests” and only in his own interests because he didn’t like Costello’s style:
“In electing to approach the leadership as he did, Costello completely misread both my temperament and my personality. Having worked closely with me for a decade it surprised me that he imagined I would succumb to the sort of rank amateur pressure placed on me through media briefings and the like… To have gone in the wake of the Milne story about the December 1994 meeting would have had history recording that I had been forced out by the revelation of a broken deal, no matter how untrue that might have been. I was never going to allow that to happen.”
And finally, in September 2007:
“…I had to face the reality that the government was headed for defeat and that part of the outcome would be my losing Bennelong… I then said to Downer: ‘Do you think it would help if I went? Could Costello do better than I could? Perhaps a new leader would upset Rudd and turn things around?’ …I told Downer that I would not leave in circumstances of cowardly flight. In no way would I countenance the appearance of going because I was afraid of defeat.”
You may or may not agree with Howard’s ideas or policies. But when it comes to selfishness and the disregard of the interests of his own party, Howard has no equal in Australian politics.
[But when it comes to selfishness and the disregard of the interests of his own party, Howard has no equal in Australian politics.]
Oh utter stuff and nonsense Crikey.
Howard has plenty of equals in the selfish disregard stakes.
He just has no equal in the stupidity of writing it down and publishing it in a book!
Yep, Howard was never going to go by choice whatever justifications he has written in this book. It is one of life’s mysteries that a successful politician like him lacks the self perception to recognise and admit to his failings and mistakes.
Whatever people may believe about Costello’s leadership capabilities, he was a loyal deputy who was cruelly done over by John Howard.
The only reason Howard was elected, and reelected, was that there was no real alternative, he remained in because he was slightly the lesser evil.
the only thing that saddens me is that it took 20 odd years for the australian public and the electors of bennelong to realise that we had a lying racist redneck as our prime minister
you have got to be kidding if you are surprised by what he has to say in his book
does anybody remember the incident when mike shafton phoned him about the children overboard affair in his wifes presence, and telling him that what the government was saying about the incident was false and both of them denying that howard had received any call from him ? his wife was a liar along with him
Actually he still doesn’t get it. Nor does Abbott. The answer to the question is: Iraq war.
And the question is: When was the first general election after the Australia public learned categorically there were no WMD and the basis of the war was false?
And the answer is late 2007.
Perhaps only people in that 300K crowd in Sydney protest will really get this. Or maybe the 10K that Howard deliberately attempted to bait at APEC pre election in a final gambit.
We still live in a society beyond twitter, and tabloidism, where Australians actually do care about a false war and mass innocent death. The timing with the latest Wikileaks release is exquisite.
And what is Australian civil society doing to actually protect this historic whistle blower from a vendetta? Not much it seems. Big and little media – this is your Bonhoeffer moment. Positively support Assange’s initiative or admit you are merely cold blooded reptiles.