The Passing of an Era

Australia has a new Prime Minister this morning-- well technically John Howard will remain PM until he tenders his resignation to the Governor General, but in effect Kevin Rudd is the new PM.

My personal feeling is that John Howard was a good Prime Minister, certainly a long-serving and stable leader. As he said in the election campaign "Love me or loathe me, the people of Australia know what I stand for."

Yet I felt that he made a few mistakes which led him to fall short of being a truly great Prime Minister.

The positives:

* strong leadership, particularly at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
* strong economic policies which produced great prosperity for most in the nation
* the intervention in dysfunctional Aboriginal communities

The greatest moment in his 4 terms was at the time of the tsunami when he boldly announced a $1 billion aid package to rebuild Aceh. What a hugely generous offer that was.

The negatives:

* the industrial relations changes
* the immigration stuff ups- especially where it was revealed that people were Australians were detained or deported under suspicion of being illegal immigrants
* remaining in Iraq


Two moments which I think were critical timed where John Howard fell short, where John Howard could have had the opportunity of being a legend in Australia's history:

* his refusal to say "Sorry" to the aboriginal community for the worngs of the past.
* the Dr Haneef case which revealed the lengths that the Government was prepared to go including lying and abusing the law, in order to appear tough on suspected terrorists.

For me the Haneef case really represented the turning point in the Government's longevity. It wasn't mentioned at all during the campaign, but you could feel at the time it was happening that people realised the sickening injustice of it all and that our nation had taken a turn for the worse.

Several months ago, Robert Holmes prophesied that "if John Howard stands, he will fall." This has proven to be remarkably accurate with the real possibility that he will lose his seat in Parliament- only the first Prime Minister in 80 years to have suffered this fate. If he had resigned 12 months ago and handed over to Peter Costello, it's likely that the Liberals could have won, with both parties offering new leadership. John Howard would have truly been a hero.

It will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold. We need to pray for this new government.

By the way it's worth noting that Australia has once again changed government without a single death or violent incident. In world standards, even amongst democracies, this is a great achievement and a blessing on our nation.

Blessings

Keith