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Prime Minister, 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007
Liberal Party of Australia
A ‘highly disciplined and professional politician who left nothing to chance’, John Howard (b. 1939) served four consecutive terms as Prime Minister, a period surpassed only by Robert Menzies.1 Committed to economic and industrial reform, he led Australia through the ‘War on Terrorism’.
Howard was born in Sydney and attended Canterbury Boys’ High, the first Liberal Party Prime Minister to attend a government school.2 He studied law at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1961 to work as a solicitor. Elected NSW Young Liberals president in 1962, he joined the party’s state executive the following year, becoming vice-president in 1972. In 1971, he married Janette Parker and they had three children.3
Howard was elected as the federal Member for Bennelong in 1971 and held the seat for over 30 years. He joined the Fraser ministry in 1975, taking on the Business and Consumer Affairs portfolio. In 1977 he became Treasurer, continuing in that role until 1983. Howard became party leader in 1985 but was replaced in 1989, famously quipping that his return to leadership would be like ‘Lazarus with a triple bypass’.4 However, this occurred in 1995 and he led the Coalition to a decisive victory in the 1996 election.
As Prime Minister, Howard presided over a lengthy period of economic expansion.5 His policy agenda included a goods and services tax, privatising Telstra, and reforming industrial relations.6 Further changes included a points-based skilled migration scheme and emphasis on border protection.7 Following the Port Arthur massacre, Howard negotiated and led the National Firearms Agreement, providing standardised laws and a gun buy-back program.8 He was in Washington DC during the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001. Following this and the Bali terrorist attack in 2002, national security increasingly dominated his Government’s agenda. Australian troops were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq as part of international coalition forces.9
After serving over 10 years as Prime Minister, Howard’s 33-year parliamentary career ended when he lost his seat at the 2007 election, only the second Prime Minister to do so.10 In 2008, he was awarded an AC for his parliamentary service. In recognition of his significant public service, he was awarded the Star of the Solomon Islands in 2005, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, the OM in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth II and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan in 2013.11
After politics, Howard published two books: Lazarus Rising (2010) and The Menzies Era (2014). As a keen sports fan, he has served the Bradman Foundation as director (from 2008) and patron (from 2015).12 In 2017, he was named chairman of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.13 He continues to be involved in public debate and political campaigns.
Jiawei Shen
Chinese–Australian Jiawei Shen (b.1948) became a practising artist in his early twenties. In the mid-1970s he was a member of the Shanghai Red Guard painting propaganda portraits during the Cultural Revolution. He completed postgraduate studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and was a professional artist at the Liaoning Art Academy throughout the 1980s. Shen exhibited as a solo artist at the Liaoning Art Gallery in Shenyang and participated in group exhibitions in China, France, Bangladesh, and Tokyo. Forced to leave China because of his painting depicting heroes of the Nationalist movement, he arrived in Sydney in 1989, subsequently drawing portraits of people at Darling Harbour to make ends meet. He has since become a regular finalist in the Archibald Prize and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has also won the Sulman and Gallipoli Art Prizes in 2006 and 2016 respectively. Shen has painted commissioned portraits of Pope Francis and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, as well as other HMC portraits of Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Speakers of the House of Representatives David Hawker and Bronwyn Bishop.14
John Winston Howard
by Jaiwei Shen
2009
Oil on canvas
120.8 x 100.6 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following: ‘Australia’s prime ministers: John Howard’, National Archives of Australia; ‘Prime Ministers of Australia: John Howard’, National Museum of Australia; ‘Australian Prime Ministers: John Howard’, Museum of Australian Democracy; M Grattan, ed., Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland, Sydney, 2000, pp. 436–63. Websites accessed 28 September 2021.
2. ‘John Winston Howard, AC’, Museum of Australian Democracy, accessed 28 September 2021.
3. ‘John Howard’s partner: Janette Howard’, National Archives of Australia, accessed 28 September 2021.
4. P Bowers, ‘Silence in the House as Peacock goes a-hunting’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 May 1989.
5. 'John Winston Howard, AC’, op. cit.
6. ‘John Howard: during office’, National Archives of Australia, accessed 29 September 2021.
7. ‘Australian Prime Ministers: John Howard’, op. cit.
8. A Davies, ‘John Howard’s decisive action on gun control revealed in 1996 cabinet papers’, The Guardian Australia, 1 January 2019, accessed 29 September 2021.
9. Australian Prime Ministers: John Howard’, op. cit.
10. The first instance was Stanley Bruce in 1929.
11. ‘John Howard: fast facts’, National Archives of Australia, accessed 29 September 2021.
12. ‘Board of directors’, Bradman Centre, accessed 29 September 2021.
13. The Ramsay Centre, ‘Our Board’, accessed 11 October 2021.
14. Information in this biography has been taken from the following: ‘Jiawei Shen‘, National Portrait Gallery, 2018; S Engledow, ‘Shen Jiawei’ the Popular Pet Show’, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Archibald Prize 2011: Jiawei Shen’, Art Gallery of NSW; ‘Jiawei Shen’s Archibald Paintings’, Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture, Western Sydney University. ‘Shen, Jiawei’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 878. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.