John Howard

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Person.png John Howard  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician)
John howard.png
BornJohn Winston Howard
1939-07-26
Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia
Alma materCanterbury Boys' High School, University of Sydney
ReligionAnglicanism
Children3
SpouseJanette Parker
Member ofAustralian Club (Sydney), International Republican Institute/Board and Staff, JP Morgan Chase/International Council, Mont Pelerin Society
PartyLiberal Party of Australia

Employment.png Prime Minister of Australia

In office
11 March 1996 - 3 December 2007
Preceded byPaul Keating
Succeeded byKevin Rudd

Employment.png Treasurer of Australia

In office
19 November 1977 - 11 March 1983
Succeeded byPaul Keating

Employment.png Australia/Leader of the Opposition Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
30 January 1995 - 11 March 1996

Employment.png Australia/Leader of the Opposition Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
5 September 1985 - 9 May 1989

Employment.png Manager of Opposition Business in the House

In office
7 April 1993 - 31 January 1995

Employment.png Member of the Australian Parliament for Bennelong

In office
18 May 1974 - 24 November 2007
Succeeded byRichard Marles

2003 Iraq Invasion

John Howard was leading Australia as the third accomplice in the 2003 attack on Iraq. While George W. Bush and Tony Blair to some extent were discredited by the illegal invasion and preceding propaganda campaigns[1] about "Iraq's WMDs", John Howard, as Australian PM and third partner in the war coalition, escaped this public opprobrium.[citation needed]

As part of the justification of the war, Howard in March 2003 spread the lie about an alleged human shredding machine used by the Iraqis, an tool for putting to death critics of Saddam Hussein. A week earlier, Howard mentioned other lurid stories: "We're talking about a regime that will gouge out the eyes of a child to force a confession from the child's parents. This is a regime that will burn a person's limbs ... that, in 2000, decreed the crime of criticising it would be punished by the amputation of tongues."[2]

The government TV channel Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) was used to spread around the world a television interview with Adnand al-Haideri, a defector who claimed he had worked at illegal chemical, biological and nuclear facilities around Baghdad, claims that later were exposed as lies. The interview was made by Paul Moran, a spook who worked for the Rendon Group but used freelancing for the ABC as cover.

Children Overboard affair

Full article: Children Overboard affair

The "Children Overboard affair" was a central focus in the 2001 federal election campaign, when John Howard was accused of cynically demonizing asylum-seekers. Howard and senior ministers falsely claimed on the eve of the election that a boat of (mostly Iraqi) asylum-seekers had thrown their children into the water to guarantee their rescue by the Australian navy. When challenged about this, Howard said that the refugees "don't carry any visible signs of being demonised".[3] The following parliamentary inquiry was stonewalled and lied to.

Australia/VIPaedophile

In 2019, former prime minister John Howard described Cardinal Australia/VIPaedophile George Pell as "a person of both high intelligence and exemplary character" and said his conviction on child sexual abuse charges doesn’t "alter my opinion of the Cardinal" in a character reference. Howard was one of 10 people to submit a character reference to Melbourne’s county court during a sentencing hearing after Pell was found guilty of five counts of child sexual abuse. He said he had known Pell for 30 years and that he is a "person of both high intelligence and exemplary character, and that Pell was a "lively conversationalist who maintains a deep and objective interest in contemporary social and political issues."[4]


 

A Quote by John Howard

PageQuote
Port Arthur Massacre“We need to achieve a total prohibition on the ownership, possession, sale and importation of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That will be the essence of the proposal that will be put by the Commonwealth government at the meeting on Friday...”

 

Appointments by John Howard

AppointeeJobAppointedEnd
Julie BishopAustralia/Minister/Ageing7 October 200327 January 2006
Julie BishopAustralia/Minister/Women27 January 20063 December 2007
Julie BishopAustralia/Minister/Education and Science27 January 20063 December 2007
Peter DuttonAustralia/Minister/Workforce Participation26 October 200427 January 2006
Peter DuttonAssistant Treasurer of Australia27 January 20063 December 2007
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References


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