Childhood & Early Life
John Howard was born John Winston Howard on July 26, 1939 in the suburb of Earlwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to Lyall Howard and Mona Kell.
He was the youngest of the four sons of his parents and his elder brothers were Stanley, Walter and Robert.
He attended the ‘Earlwood Primary School’ and the ‘Canterbury Boy’s High School’ run by the NSW state.
He studied law at the ‘University of Sydney’ after obtaining his ‘School Leaving Certificate’ and graduated from there in 1961.
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Career
After graduating from University, John Howard practiced as a solicitor in the NSW Supreme Court for twelve years but did not pursue the career of barrister and instead turned to politics.
He joined the Liberal Party of New South Wales in 1957 and became the president of the youth organization of the party ‘Young Liberals’ from 1962 to 1964.
In 1967 he was selected as the candidate for the suburban seat of Drummoyne which was held by Reg Coady of the Labor Party.
In the federal election held in 1968, Howard lost by a very narrow margin to Coady despite the Liberal government returning to power.
He became a ‘Member of Parliament’ in the ‘House of Representatives’ from a suburb in Sydney named Bennelong in the 1974 elections.
He was appointed the ‘Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs’ 1975. He held this position till 1977.
In December 1977, Howard was appointed treasurer and started encouraging free-market economics which was a change from his earlier pro-regulation and protectionist ideas.
He brought in a lot of changes to the economy such as reforming the tax laws, broadening the tax base, which became the GST in future, and removing the system of fixing wages centrally. He also abolished the compulsory joining of trade union groups and encouraged deregulation and privatization.
When the Fraser government started an investigation related to financial reforms in 1978, Howard backed the Campbell report despite opposition from the treasury benches.
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In 1981 he proposed making the indirect taxation more broad-based and proposed a cut in the personal tax but was refused by the cabinet in its implementation.
In April 1982, he was elected to the post of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.
Howard wanted to resign from his post in July 1982 due a difference with Fraser on fiscal reforms but later decided to see it through with the advice of his wife and senior advisor John Hewson.
The Liberal government of Fraser lost the elections in 1983. Howard tried to become the leader of the Liberal Party but was defeated by Andrew Peacock.
He became the Deputy Leader of the opposition party when the Labor party came to power in 1984.
In September 1985, he was re-elected as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party by defeating John Moore. Peacock resigned and he defeated Jim Carlton to become the Leader of the Liberal Party and the opposition.
In the 1987 elections the Labor Party retained power and Howard lost the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1989.
He regained the leadership of the Liberal Party on January 26, 1995 when Alexander Downer resigned.
On March 11, 1996, at the age of 56 Howard became the 25th Prime Minister of Australia for the first time.
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In 1998 he called for elections three months before it was due and was re-elected for a second term up to 2001.
He sent Australian troops to East Timor in 1999 as a part of the UN peacekeeping force.
He introduced a new tax system in 2000.
He was re-elected for a third term as Prime Minister in the federal elections of 2001.
In April 2002 he sent 2,000 Australian troops to join the ‘Multinational Force in Iraq’ despite several protests from his countrymen.
On December 21, 2004, Howard was elected to the post of Prime Minister for the fourth term thus becoming the longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies.
He lost Prime Minister’s post in the election held in 2007.
