WEBVTT - The Howard Effect: Australia’s Sliding Doors Moment 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.920 It's the second of March nineteen ninety six, thirty years ago. 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.880 This week, Paul Keating takes the stage in front of 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.320 hundreds of true believers at the Bankstown Leagues Club. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:16.120 I've always passionately believed that all power, all power came 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.200 from the public, every last morsel of it, and it's 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.439 the nation's perfect right to decide who they want to 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:27.400 govern it. I take this opportunity to congratulate John Howard. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.240 I wish him and his government well. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.400 Keaton's government had just been ousted in a landslide at 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.440 Trouncing after thirteen years of labor and power. There was 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.720 much a moment of reflection, as it was one of concession. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.560 We've opened the country up. We've opened the country up 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.280 and turned it towards the world as never before, and 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:51.440 we've done it in a way which has also put 0:00:52.120 --> 0:01:01.280 a high premium on social equity and social consensus. We've 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.440 also taken the bigger view and tried to do something 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:10.039 about some of the intractable problems, like a proper basis 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.160 of reconciliation of our indigenies, which we held a. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.080 Bit for The door on the hawk Keeping years was 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.000 coming to a close and another was about to open 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.240 on a new political era, one that would change the 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.039 country are one that is still impacting the way politics 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.800 is run today, all shaped by one man. 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.399 Can I say to you, and my first words are 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:37.039 addressed to all of the people of Australia, that I. 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:42.679 Am very conscious of the enormous responsibility that has been 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.880 based upon me and upon my colleagues by. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:48.480 The verdicte of the Australian people. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:48.920 Today. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:55.200 I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven Am. The 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.600 course how It's set for the country during is eleven 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.560 years in the nation's highest office, redefined the Liberal Party, 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.080 reshaped the economy, hardened the culture wars and transformed the 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.440 way power is exercised in Campra. In this three part series, 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.840 author Amy Rimikers, who just released a book on John Howard, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.760 takes us back to his years and power, from his 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.200 improbable rise to the Prime ministership in which he resurrected 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.359 a political career many had written off, to the way 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:30.640 he consolidated power and reshaped the nation in his own image. 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.919 This is the Howard Effect. A series by seven Am. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.799 Episode one Australia's Sliding Doors Moment. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.480 And I want to say that the government that I 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.400 will leave will be a government not only for the 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.960 people who voted for us, but also for the people 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:56.680 who voted against us. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.160 Amy, tell me about the size shift that was about 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:03.960 to occur on the night of March second, nineteen ninety six, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.560 as power transition from Paul Keating to John Howard. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.480 Yeah, it's a moment in history. I don't think we 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:15.560 think about enough because it essentially set up Australia from 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.680 the direction that it was heading in in terms of 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.960 opening itself up more to the world, reconciling itself with 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:27.920 its indigenous history, shifting away from the anglosphere into the 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:33.000 more geographical position of the Asia Pacific, and all of 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:38.520 a sudden, John Howard is elected not because his policies 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.920 necessarily spoke to Australians, but because he was not Paul Keating. 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:51.680 I want to thank Paul Keating for his gracious words. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.440 I want and that is something to remember in talking 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.640 about all of this. It's that Paul Keating had become 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:06.800 so unpopular, mostly because of the early nineteen nineties recession. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:11.240 Ah, I thought these damn fool things were supposed to 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.240 go up. We keep feeling the thing with hooty act, 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.680 don't get your glands and I'm not bob, it'll make 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:17.359 yourself learning. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.040 But also because he was forcing Australia to accept some 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.560 really uncomfortable truths. And there's this idea now that perhaps 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.240 he was moving too quickly to try and push Australia into, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.040 you know, into the future. And so then comes along 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.440 John Howard who tells Australia that if you are feeling 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.840 uncomfortable with the direction that Labor and Paul Keating in 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.440 particular at taking you in, vote for me. I'm an 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.400 average bloke who wants average bloke things, and I will 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:56.120 make sure that you are famelessly relaxed and comfortable. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.320 Aimy comfortable and relaxed became a defining catch frame of 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.360 how It's campaign a country at ease with its history, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.719 present and future in his mind, what did he consider 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:09.479 uncomfortable about Australia. 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.359 It's a really interesting question because you have to go 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.520 back thirty years to what was happening in Australia. And 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.680 if you look at the ninety four and ninety five 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.120 cabinet papers, so the last couple of years of the 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:25.960 Keating government, these talking about wanting Australia to become a republic, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.719 which is shifting Australia away from the motherland of England 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.600 and the anglosphere. About wanting to build a cultural identity 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.080 for Australia beyond sport, Paul Keating was saying, Hey, I 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.400 think we've matured enough as a country that we can 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.880 start actually being a middle power and start having more 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.839 cultural impact in the world, which meant, of course, also 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:53.839 reconciling with Australia's atrocious indigenous history. And while you can't 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.119 say that we were definitely on the steps to reconciliation, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.320 you could say that it was the beginning of the 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.800 reconciliation process under Keating. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.400 Now give me a great pleasure to had produced the 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.600 Prime Minister of Australia, mister Paul Keating. 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.560 As he had done the famous Redfern speech. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:19.080 It begins, I think with an act of recognition, recognition 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:24.839 that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:29.719 the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:35.719 We brought the diseases and the alcohol, We committed the murders. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:38.960 We took the children from their mothers. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.039 He had spoken about the inequality between indigenous Australia and 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.200 white Australia, and how we needed to start closing that gap. 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.880 We cannot imagine that will file, and with the spirit 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.960 that is here today, I'm confident that we won't file. 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.159 I'm confident we will succeed in this decade. Thank you 0:06:59.279 --> 0:06:59.960 very much for listen. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.360 Around the same time, we had things like Marbo at 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.200 the heart of today's ruling, a ten year battle by 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.800 the Merrian people of the Murray Islands in the Torres 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.280 Strait for recognition of their traditional rights to the island. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.400 By recognizing the island as native title, the courters acknowledged 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.880 the land belonged to the indigenous people before white settlement. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.360 And so all of this was happening at a time 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:32.360 when Australians, white Australians, previous labor voters, working class voters, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.960 were feeling very uncomfortable about the cultural shifts, but also 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:41.720 quite uncomfortable about their own individual wealth because of the 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:51.720 recession that we had just gone through. And John Howard, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.120 in an electoral preview that he did with Liz Jackson, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.200 a journalist with four Corners at the time, was asked 0:07:58.200 --> 0:07:59.920 what his vision was for Australia. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.360 Can you give us a John Howard vision for the 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:08.200 year two thousand to the Australian public, such that they 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.120 will see, yes, this is the person we would like 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:12.000 to be Prime Minister. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.480 Let me respond to your question, And almost by accident, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:16.920 he later said. 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.240 I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.800 their history. I'd like to see them comfortable and relaxed 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.800 about the present, and I'd also like to see them 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:28.760 comfortable and relaxed about the future. 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.640 And that really ended up resonating with a lot of voters. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.520 The pace of reform during the hawks Keeping years transformed 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:42.320 the economy, floating the dollar, cutting tariffs, opening Australia to 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.160 the world. But for John Howard that Bragneck change came 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.760 at a cost. Both men grew up in suburban Sydney 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.720 during the mensies years. They saw the same Australia, but 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.240 they drew very different lessons from it. For Keating, the 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.920 nineteen fifties were a warning a country protect did complacent 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.640 and falling behind, as he told Parliament in no uncertain 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.240 terms in nineteen ninety two. 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.920 And then, of course we had then a flurry of 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.640 comment by the Member for bed Long about the fifties, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:13.680 what a very good period. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.599 It was a very very good period. He said, a 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.400 golden age. This is the golden age. 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:22.240 This is the golden age when vast numbers of the 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.120 stade that's never going to look in, that the women who. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.760 Didn't get a look in but had no no equal 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.199 rights and no equal pain, where migrants were factory partner. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.080 Wherever it's respirted from the system, where we had these 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.240 Xennifiers running around about Britain and boat steps and an 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.400 awful cultural cremdge under Menzies, which told us back for 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:43.880 Neli our generation. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.040 But for the Member for Benelong, John Howard, the fifties 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.800 were a utopia, a place he wanted the country to 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.480 get back to. Menzies was his hero. 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.959 Yeah, and the him being a big fan of Mensiism. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.360 It was cherry picking what parts of Menzies Australia that 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.439 he wanted and what parts of that, you know, nineteen 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.760 fifties white Australia he wanted. And you really have to 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.360 go back to how John Howard grew up. He grew 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:19.880 up in a white Methodist conservative suburb of Earlwood in Sydney. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.640 It was not a multicultural suburb and you could see 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.360 that in his you know some of his first policy 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:31.240 documents that he created famously, there's one that he released 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.560 in nineteen eighty eight called One Australia, and if you 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.360 read it now, it's almost like a primer for not 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.920 only the Australia that Howard built over his eleven years 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:46.240 in office, but also for one nation's policies. And back 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.640 then it was Asian migration, and he ended up losing 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:54.600 the Liberal leadership after cautioning against more Asian migration. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.680 There is some concern about the pace of change involved 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.160 in the level of Asian migration, and I think any 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.880 government is entitled to take that into account. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.679 And Australia and more importantly, the Liberal Party at that point, 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.760 were not so comfortable being so openly racist. This was 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.720 still an Australia that was reckoning with the white Australia policy. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.400 But then you get to the mid nineties and as 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.559 he said, the times will suit me, and they did. 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.000 And all it took was the economic insecurity of the 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.680 early nineties to create the sort of environment where someone 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:31.720 like Howard would. 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:37.720 Flourish coming up from punchline the political powerhouse. The Howard 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:49.000 comeback in not only five John Howard became Liberal leader 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.160 after a party room showdown called by Andrew Peacock. 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.400 It is certainly in a personal sense that a very 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:01.360 significant day, and very important day in my own parliamentary career. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.800 I accept the leadership of the Liberal Party with a 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:11.720 sense of great responsibility, a profound gratitude that my colleagues 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:13.480 had proposed that confidence in me. 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.199 And after the public rejected his platform with the nineteen 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.400 eighty seven election, he was booted as leader by the 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.520 party in nineteen eighty nine and said this about the 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.800 chances of a return to leadership. 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.920 The prospect of mounting some return leadership bit of his own, 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.640 he dismisses with scorn as Lazarus with a triple bypass. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.360 It's hard to imagine that at one stage he was 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.719 almost seen as a laughing stock of Australian politics. So 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.640 it was a remarkable comeback and assent to power. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:49.600 It is completely remarkable. In modern terms. You almost cannot 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.839 imagine that we will ever see somebody who lost as 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.160 much as Howard did come and take over the leadership 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.000 of the party given a second or third and then 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.800 managed to hold that party, you know, almost completely by himself. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.439 In the direction that he wanted, but not necessarily because 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:14.439 Australia suddenly became more conservative, although there certainly was elements 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:18.600 of that, which follows all times of economic insecurity, and 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.680 I think we can even say that we're seeing that 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.000 play out now. Howard knew how to seize on that, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.200 but he also spent most of his political career up 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:33.480 until the mid nineties laying the foundations for the times 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:38.439 that he wanted. Looking back, you can see that Howard 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.479 had three main priorities that he wanted to address almost immediately. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.560 One was his lifelong battle against industrial relations. He really 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.040 wanted to nobel union power. He could not stand unions, 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.800 and one of the first things that he did was 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.200 essentially set up the Waterfront Dispute as a way to 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.800 break the unions. 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.720 It was a human barricade several hundred deep across the road, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.240 frustrating the passage of trucks into the Port Botany terminal. 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:16.120 On April the seventh, fourteen hundred plus workers were summarily 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.120 and illegally dismissed from their jobs in the middle of 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.240 the night with armed guards with dogs onto. 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.920 The NA will be once again responsible for damaging businesses 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:31.440 and losing people jobs. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.280 And he convinced Australians that the waterfront dispute was about 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.359 greedy unions who were trying to take advantage of Australians, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.760 when what he was doing was handing over worker power 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.280 to corporations and to their bosses. 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.560 In Kens, the Prime Minister defended his actions, saying an 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.360 efficient waterfront was vital to the country's future. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:56.720 Unless we create the economic weapons and tools for Australians 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.120 to compete effectively with the rest of the world. 0:14:59.200 --> 0:14:59.800 We're not going to. 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.840 The other things that he wanted to do were slow 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:11.960 down any steps towards indigenous reconciliation, stop the republic, and 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.560 stop any slide away from Australia's identity within the anglosphere. 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.120 And he started that almost immediately. 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.880 Australians at this generation should not be required to accept, 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.360 build and blame for past actions and policies over which 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:28.920 they had no control. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.280 And the other thing that he wanted to do was 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.320 reform the tax system. So he was an economic conservative, 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:40.480 so he set about reforming the beginnings of Australia's tax 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.480 system and we still see that today with baked in 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.760 middle class welfare, a housing market that's out of control. 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.040 I mean i'my slowly and you're taking this into episode 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.280 two at a rated knots stop for that. 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.600 Yet all of those things we can trace back to Howard. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.640 No matter where you stand on Howard's politics, there's little 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.880 doubt than purely political terms, he was the most gifted 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.600 politician of his time. A mixture of rigid ideologue and 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:07.920 fleet footed pragmatist. 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:14.160 He was really slick, but not obviously so so. I 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.280 mean the year before he was elected in nineteen ninety five, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.960 he was saying about what Keating was doing at the time, 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.880 no one owns the national identity. 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.200 Let me say, mister speaker, that the interests of eighteen 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.880 and a half million Australians are more important than the 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.360 identity of one. 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.800 That was basically him saying, somebody telling us what the 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:44.040 national identity is is not correct, because we know instinctively 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.080 what the national identity was. 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.600 And if we do want to achieve change that unifies 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.720 and doesn't divide, then we need to choose a method 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:58.480 of facilitating that change that the entire Australian community can 0:16:58.520 --> 0:16:59.640 feel comfortable about. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.320 And we are still having the arguments around Australia's national 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.480 identity that were put in place when average Joe John 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.160 Howard came along and said, oh, actually, I just think 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.359 that it's an Zac Day and Australia Day and that 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.399 nobody is better than anybody else, which we all know 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.840 is a dog whistle. But he was so effective at 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.520 it that nobody could really get a handle on how 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.320 to counter him. At the time. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.600 You argue Howard didn't invent the culture wars, but he 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:40.200 did master them. What did he understand about identity politics 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:41.040 that others didn't. 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:46.280 He understood about identity politics that it truly was emotional, 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.919 that it was not rational, it was not something intelligent, 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.439 It's not something that you necessarily could teach people. It 0:17:53.520 --> 0:18:00.680 was about weaponizing feelings. Howard just absolutely mastered being average. 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.359 So if he chose three words, they'd be I hope 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.720 I'd like to be seen as an average Australian blag. 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:12.280 So most people saw him as being quite benign, bumbling. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:17.480 As a person. I think somebody very much with quintessential 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:18.479 Australian values. 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:24.320 But that was a very cultivated political costume that he 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.359 was wearing. He knew exactly who he was speaking to, and. 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.199 I can't think of I can't think of a nobler 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.480 description of anybody than to be called an average Australian blag. 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.800 He was speaking to Australians who felt they had been 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.640 left behind. Howard Cell was going, Oh, I'm not actually 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.080 selling you anything. I'm just pointing out that you are 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.119 right to feel discomforted by all of this. And while 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.800 he was doing that, while he was started waging a 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.400 lot of these culture wars. At the same time, he 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:04.119 was winding back union power, he was winding back government regulations, 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.919 he was winding back a government support and all of 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.679 these other things that people had relied on for community, 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.680 for organizing, for being able to, you know, actually get ahead. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.080 He presented all of this to the Australian people in 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.000 a way where they felt he was speaking for them, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.120 even when what he was doing was essentially setting them 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.119 up for failure. What he did was set us up 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:35.639 for generations of inequality, you know, division, and put us 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:39.320 backwards not only on the world stage but also domestically. 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.639 The other politically seismic event of nine ninety six was 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:46.800 Pauline Hanson's made in speech to Parliament. 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:52.639 Iron most Australians want our immigration policy policy radically reviewed 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:58.679 and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.160 danger of being swamped Iasians between nineteen. 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.199 Eighty four and ninety did Howard see the speech and 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.400 the reaction to it as a threat or an opportunity. 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.040 Oh, it was absolutely an opportunity. And he had learnt 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.800 from nineteen eighty eight where he had gone out on 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.359 a limb when it came to migrant Asian migration, how 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.280 far he could go as somebody who was in the mainstream, 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.520 and how he would be held to account for what 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.440 he said. So he did not criticize Pauline Hansen. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.520 People do feel able to speak a little more freely 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.800 and a little more openly about what they feel. In 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:45.560 a sense, the pall of censorship on certain issues has 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:47.000 been lifted. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.520 It wasn't until the lead up to the nineteen ninety 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.359 eight Queensland state election where Pauline Hansen was starting to 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.880 become a force in Queensland and threatening to take Ellen Pece. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.680 It's that Howard started playing things a little bit tougher. 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.879 The Prime Minister has made his strongest attack yet on 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.240 Independent MP Pauline Hanson's anti Asian stand. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.000 She is wrong when she says that Australia is in 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.679 danger of being swamped by Asians. She is wrong to 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.560 seek scapegoats for society's problems. 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.080 And it wasn't a moral stance that he took, but 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.040 he did do a decree for political reasons that she 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.280 was to be put last. But then we also have 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:34.760 to remember that when she came back into the Senate 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.359 in twenty sixteen, it was John Howard who gave the 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.760 Liberals and the Nationals the approval to be able to 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.720 work with her, effectively lifting the ban of putting her 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.840 last by saying that you have to work with her. Now, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.679 of course, ten years on, we know that that has 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.200 cannibalized the Liberal and the National Party. That one nation 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:59.960 is once again rising in the polls, and they're so far. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.240 They're doing it at the expense of the Liberals Nationals, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.560 And ironically, from a polling position, if they did do 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:11.640 the put her last, it actually would probably stemy enough 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.800 of her vote at an election booth where they wouldn't 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.919 be as panicked about losing as many seats. So you 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.320 could say that John Howard set the Liberals and Nationals 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.960 on the path that we see today for election annihilation. 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:29.320 Amy, thanks so much for your time. 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:30.360 Thank you. 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:44.960 Next time on the Howard effect. 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.199 When you think about the Howard government, you think of 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:49.879 strong economic management. 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.960 There is no doubt, my fellow Australians, that this country 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:58.000 desperately needs a new taxation system. 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:03.359 Not the circumstance of high iron ore prices, a mining boom, 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.400 and increased tax receipts all coming in at the same 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:11.520 time to basically give him a giant treasure load of revenue. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.359 I haven't found anybody in seven and a half years 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:17.320 shake their fist and mean say how I'm angry with 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:19.400 you for letting the value of my house increase. 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.879 Buoid by the mining boom, Howard funded sweeping tax cuts 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.600 and rewired the tax system so higher earners received larger 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:29.400 breaks than those on lower incomes. 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.879 It was Howard readdressing the tax system to put more 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:39.199 onus and responsibility on individual taxpayers rather than richer people 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.720 and corporates who actually could afford to be paying more 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:45.240 tax to pay for the services that we all need 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:45.640 and use. 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:49.800 That's tomorrow. See there