How do Australians feel about John Howard?

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Rygar

Very smart politician, very well educated man, quite likeable and approachable.

I think he's done a very good job as PM over the last 11 years.

Probably time he considered stepping down however as he seems to have lost touch with general community sentiments.

Personally not keen on seeing Peter Costello as PM but likewise shudder upon consideration of the "me too-isms" prevalent with Kevin Rudd.

The election isnt all that far away now and time will tell soon enough.

Cheers :)

But Why??

My honest opinion is he is a heck of a nice man to meet in the street. As PM he has brought down interest rates and improved the economy from the Labor Govt 11 years ago (Keating-Hawke). But unfortunately the last couple of years have seen him under attack because of our involvement in the Iraq War, and the other big thing here is the IR Laws (workplace agreements) which are affecting a huge percentage of the workforce and it is not going down well with the mainstream general working public. Overall he has done an incredible job of fixing up the mess of Keating and bringing down unemployment to an all-time low rate of around the 4% mark, and also interest rates from a horrible 12% or 17% to 6% , the reason I know this is because I have been a small business owner in the past and without small business there would not be employment for some of the lazy people that whinge about Liberal. You will get a lot of negativity in this country from Labor voters and Union workers who dont know what its like to employ people and have been on the gravy train all their working lives. You watch them whinge when Rudd gets in and interest rates go through the roof, and they turn their remarks from "little lying Johnny to little lying Rudd". Then they'll wish Mr Howard was back steering this ship.
To answer your question, I think Mr Howard has been a great Prime Minister and has had a lot to deal with, and is a very smart poitician.

* mandie *

at the moment, he's better then rudd. rudd will ruin us if he wins, i cross my fingers he don't.

Stag S

I feel he needs to be defended after several of the above posts. John took the GST to an election (which he nearly lost as a result - not the action of a cowardly liar). And the GST is a good thing for Australia. He also never promised interest rates would never rise (who but a typical Labor voter would believe that anyway). He is accused of lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction. There is no proof that he knew Iraq no longer had any. He is supposed also to have lied about believing some boat 'refugees' had thrown their children overboard. In fact groups of 'refugees' on boats have threatened to do that but they never in fact did it. He may or may not have known that they didn't (and one of his ministers probably did) but this hardly affected any election result. He was also accused of being aware of (or culpably unaware of) the Australian Wheat Board (a private company that was paying kick-backs) paying kick-backs to Saddam's regime in contravention of the rules of the UN Oil-for-Food Programme that applied just before the "Coalition of the Willing" invasion. He wasn't either aware or negligent in not being aware. On the question of honesty, the idea that he is especially dis-honest is just partisan rhetoric. If anything, he has been the most honest, especially when it has counted - at election time, of any leading Australian politicians in the last 25 years.

On the other side of the ledger, he is too socially conservative and he did probably lie to Peter Costello who is now his Treasurer about the timing of his intention to hand over the leadership. Peter's now happy, of course, because he plans to step down soon, even if he wins.

Chrissssssss

**** that other guy he knows nothing...
johnny's actually a really good politician... especially in his early days, very economically minded
hes been in power during a boom but he has definatly helped in lowering intrest rates and unemployment
hes getting a bit old now and he is probably going to lose this election based on the fact that most of australians are bogan ***** who will waste their votes

otto2294

what you all on about working families in australia have never been better off

S F C

John Howard is the best prime minister in recent history. He has the country in it's best economic state it has ever been in.

He upsets the uneducated & the unwashed by reigning in the militant unions. People here, who left school at 15 years of age & with no education, want the same wages & conditions as university graduates. Howard, unlike the Labor Party, stands up to these misfits & they resent the fact.

Australia is one of a handful of nations that has compulsory voting. If it was voluntary only, Labor would not get a sniff because most of their voters would not turn up at the election booths - as it is many of them have to be rounded up & conveyed to the polling sites.... & that is a fact!

John Howard is very popular with most of the educated populance of Australia.

Live_For_Today

Its goodbye Johnny Howard and hello Kevin Rudd

mmdjaajl

do you know the word WANKER?
thats him

Ken E

I would not pi$$ in his mouth if his teeth were on fire. He can rot in hell and I hope soon.

Serenity007

Go....Kevin 07!

tentofield

Little Lying Johnny has only 16 days left before he loses his seat and the election. He might not be Australia's worst Prime Minister, he is certainly not the best but he is far and away the nastiest. Good riddance!

molly

He is about to get voted out and no his government is built on lies and his best buddy is George Bush so that should tell you something about his personality or lack of.
Our last Prime Minister described him as a shiver looking for a spine to run up quite appropriately.

iansand9876

You can fool some of the people all of the time. All of the people some of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Johnnie's lies and equivocations have caught up to him and have bitten him in the bum. But I wouldn't write the lying little creep off yet.

Elizabeth

We'll all know soon enough, when we go to the polls on Saturday 24 November.

Personally, I want to see Johnny and his government gone.
Especially, Peter Costello.
It scares the heck out of me to think he may become P.M.

nookie181

how would YOU feel if some-body said to YOU and the rest of the people in YOUR Country that your worst fears would NOT come to life under HIS Governmental Super-vision , and then proceeded to MAKE those fears ABSOLUTELY real by INTRODUCING them through Parliamentary Procedures AND "LEGALISING" them?......let me remind all that may read my response to your Question.....NO GST...NO INTEREST RATE RISES...and on a different Tangent.. the fact that WE as Electoral Voters(the people who did vote IT in) for years have NOT had the RIGHT to vote him out , because HE changed the AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION to DIS-ALLOW another "GoughWhitlam" Episode to ever happen again.....That`s Right....John Howard removed our RIGHT to Implement the Power of DOUBLE DIS-SOLUTION = we vote him in , we can VOTE him OUT, because WE(the People) ARE his BOSS....look back , we`ve ALL been SHAFTED!!!!!!!!!....JOHNNY did this Legally...Did HE do it fairly?....just look at the Current I.R Regulations....GO Kevin07....current figures/guestimates indicate that IF John Howard WERE to RESIGN , as "promised" after this Federal Election , HE would receive close to 5(five)Million Dollars as his Super-annuation pay-out...how does that stack up against YOURS(considering that HE does not have to do "Personal Contribution" , like WE are OBLIGED to do...AND it comes from TAX-PAYERS money = YOURS and MINE)....isn`t Tax-payers money supposed to spent on the TAX-PAYER?.....any-way , enough of MY Tirade....get thinking AUSTRALIANS and those not yet Australian Citizens = YOU`VE got to LIVE here ,TOO!

Mjollnir

The only good thing about Johnnie is that he's stopping Peter Costello from being prime minister

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