Back from the Brink, 1997–2001: The Howard Government, Vol II

By Tom Frame

The years 1997-2001 were eventful ones for the Howard Government. This second volume of the Howard Government series explores these tumultuous years. Politicians, commentators, and scholars—including Michael Wesley, Hugh White, Peter Costello, Phillipa McGuinness, and Tom Frame—take a critical look at the Howard Government's performance, and analyze landmark events. Topics covered include: Wik and native title; a succession of ministerial resignations; the Patrick Corporation waterfront dispute; the Coalition's near defeat at the 1998 election; the response to post-independence violence in East Timor; and the introduction of the GST.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781742244112

Book preview

BACK FROM THE BRINK,

1997–2001

PROFESSOR TOM FRAME joined the RAN College as a junior entry cadet midshipman in January 1979. He served at sea and ashore for 15 years, including a posting as Research Officer to the Chief of Naval Staff, and completed a PhD at UNSW Canberra. He has been a Visiting Fellow in the School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (2000–03); Patron of the Armed Forces Federation of Australia (2002–06) and a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial (2004–07). Tom joined the academic faculty at UNSW Canberra in July 2014 and was appointed Director of the newly formed Public Research Leadership Group with responsibility for the establishment of the Howard Library in July 2017. He is the author or editor of over 40 books, including HMAS Sydney: Loss and Controversy; Stromlo: An Australian Observatory; The Life and Death of Harold Holt; Evolution in the Antipodes: Charles Darwin and Australia and Widening Minds: The University of New South Wales and the Education of Australia’s Defence Leaders.

BACK FROM

THE BRINK,

1997–2001

THE HOWARD GOVERNMENT

VOLUME II

EDITED BY TOM FRAME

A UNSW Press book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

© Tom Frame 2018

First published 2018

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is copyright. While copyright of the work as a whole is vested in Tom Frame, copyright of individual chapters is retained by the chapter authors. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

ISBN: 9781742235813 (paperback)

9781742244112 (ebook)

9781742248530 (ePDF)

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Luke Causby

Cover image John Howard during Question Time in the House of Representatives, 26 June 2002. Newspix/News Ltd

Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The editor welcomes information in this regard.

This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests.

CONTENTS

Contributors

Preface Tom Frame

1An extraordinary victory: winning the election while losing the vote Murray Goot

2A turning point for Australian Constitutionalism: monarchy or republic? John Warhurst

3A Labor perspective: the challenge of Opposition Stephen Martin

4Minor parties: dealing with the Greens, Democrats and One Nation Zareh Ghazarian

5The National Party: underperforming, overshadowed or undersold? Paul Davey

6Staffing the PM’s office: a key to national leadership Anne Tiernan

7The mystery of Howard’s public service revolution: an insider’s account Peter Shergold

8‘Black holes’ to budget surpluses: safeguarding the economy Peter Costello

9‘Never, ever’: introducing the GST David Alexander

10 The waterfront dispute: high-risk industrial relations reform Shaun Carney

11 The education policy shake-up: focusing on outcomes Scott Prasser and Graeme Starr

12 Ministerial standards: accountability and personal integrity Scott Brenton

13 Managing the region: the Coalition approach Michael Wesley

14 Defence policy: the making of a reputation Hugh White

15 International crises and national tensions: 2001 Phillipa McGuinness

16 A personal response John Howard

17 Postscript: a government of two halves Tom Frame

Appendix 1 The first and second Howard governments: early appraisals and initial assessments Tom Frame

Appendix 2 The first and second Howard ministries Andrew Blyth

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

CONTRIBUTORS

DAVID ALEXANDER is the managing director of Barton Deakin’s federal division. He was one of the most senior advisers in the office of Peter Costello during his time as Federal Treasurer (1996–2007), having joined the Treasurer’s office for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform process and remaining there until the end of the Howard Government in 2007. After leaving politics, David was the economics editor of the Canberra Times and later national director of industry policy for Master Builders Australia where he authored a major report on housing infrastructure taxes. David contributes regularly to Australia’s leading newspapers and journals. He discusses policy issues each (non-sitting) week as a regular panellist on the Sky News Policy Panel.

ANDREW BLYTH is a senior member of staff at UNSW Canberra. He is the former CEO of the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry and was previously CEO of the Energy Networks Association and a former chief of staff and senior adviser to two ministers in the Howard Government. He holds an undergraduate degree in Government and postgraduate degrees in International Relations and Business. In 2012 he was awarded a Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Australia–United States Alliance Studies that he used to conduct research at the University of Texas into off-grid energy solutions. Andrew is a contributing author to The Long Road: Australia’s Train, Advise and Assist Missions (2017) and The Ascent to Power, 1996: The Howard Government, Volume I (2017). He is currently undertaking doctoral studies researching leadership education and training for new entry officer cadets and midshipmen at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Andrew has been admitted as a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

SCOTT BRENTON joined the University of Melbourne in 2010 and is currently a senior lecturer in Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences. He previously worked at Parliament House as the 2009 Australian Parliamentary Fellow after completing his PhD on accountability at the Australian National University. Scott is the author of The Politics of Budgetary Surplus: Ideology, Economic Governance and Public Management Reform (2016) and co-editor of Constitutional Conventions in Westminster Systems: Controversies, Changes and Challenges (2015). He has been a visiting scholar at the Public Governance Institute at KU Leuven in Belgium, the Free University of Amsterdam, the Constitution Unit at University College London, the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen.

SHAUN CARNEY is an adjunct associate professor with UNSW Canberra. A columnist with the Herald Sun, he has covered Australian governments from Malcolm Fraser to Scott Morrison. He began his career as a journalist in 1978 with the Herald in Melbourne, where he was a Canberra correspondent and chief industrial relations reporter. Shaun was associate editor and national political columnist with the Age from 1996 to 2012. In 2003 he received a commendation from the Walkley Award judges for his columns in the Age. On leaving the Age in 2012, he was appointed an adjunct associate professor in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. His work has appeared in many publications including the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald and Rolling Stone. Shaun is the author of Australia in Accord – Politics and Industrial Relations under the Hawke Government (1988), Peter Costello – the New Liberal (2001) and a memoir, Press Escape (2016).

PETER COSTELLO was Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007. He was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from May 1994 to November 2007. He delivered 12 budgets including ten surpluses. During this period the Australian Sovereign Credit Rating was updated twice to its current AAA rating. In 2006 the Commonwealth Government became debt free in net terms. Peter established the Future Fund to invest subsequent budget surpluses. Although there have been no budget surpluses since his last Budget, from the original contributions, the Future Fund has now grown to around $135 billion in assets. After leaving politics, Peter joined a number of international and domestic boards including the Independent Advisory Board to the World Bank (which he chaired). He is currently chairman of Australia’s Future Fund and of the Nine Entertainment Corporation.

PAUL DAVEY has extensive knowledge of the National Party and its history. A journalist by training, he served in senior parliamentary staff roles in the federal and New South Wales National Parties between 1978 and 2000. He was the party’s longest serving federal director, during which time he worked with five leaders from Doug Anthony to John Anderson. Paul has authored five books on various aspects of the party’s history, including the 1987 ‘Joh for Canberra’ campaign (during which time he was federal director) and the story of the Anthony family in federal politics, the only one that has seen three successive generations elected to the House of Representatives.

ZAREH GHAZARIAN is a lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. He is a leading commentator on politics and government and regularly contributes to the political debate by appearing on national and international media. He has published widely in academic journals and his teaching and research interests include political parties, elections and public policy. Zareh was a fellow in the Prime Ministers Centre at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in 2015–16. His latest book is The Making of a Party System: Minor Parties in the Australian Senate (2015).

MURRAY GOOT is an emeritus professor in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. His most recent book is The Conscription Conflict and the Great War (2016), co-edited with Robin Archer, Joy Damousi and Sean Scalmer. He is currently exploring the history of political campaigning in Australia and the history of opinion polling in Australia, Britain and the United States.

JOHN HOWARD was the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia, leading the nation from March 1996 to December 2007. He was the federal member for Bennelong in the House of Representatives (1974–2007) and filled several ministerial and shadow ministerial posts prior to 1996. He was made a companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2008 and a member of the Order of Merit (OM) in 2012. He is the second-longest serving prime minister of Australia.

STEPHEN MARTIN represented the New South Wales–based electorates of Macarthur and Cunningham in the Australian Parliament from 1984 to 2002. In government, he served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and chairman of the Inquiry into the Australian Banking Industry. As a member of the Shadow Cabinet, he held portfolios in Defence, Small Business, and Trade and Tourism. After retiring from parliament, Stephen held several senior executive roles in academia, including president and chief executive officer of the University of Wollongong in Dubai, Pro Vice- Chancellor International at Victoria University, Melbourne and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Strategy and Planning) at Curtin University of Technology in Perth. He most recently retired as chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, a position he held from January 2011 to April 2017. Stephen has undertaken a number of strategic and change management roles in the private and public sectors. His interests are in economics, education, politics, corporate governance, financial services, defence and trade policy, and sport.

PHILLIPA MCGUINNESS is a publisher at NewSouth Publishing– UNSW Press where, since 2004, she has published many prize-winning books of Australian history, politics, memoir and biography. In 2016 and 2017 NewSouth itself won small publisher of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Previously she was a senior commissioning editor at Cambridge University Press. Phillipa served as an expert member of the Creative Arts and Humanities Panel of the Australian Research Council from 2005 to 2007. She is editor of Copyfight (2015). In 2018, Penguin Random House published Phillipa’s first sole-authored book, The Year Everything Changed: 2001.

SCOTT PRASSER has worked in senior policy and advisory roles across state and federal governments in both public service roles and federal and state ministerial offices across immigration, welfare services, and education and has held academic positions at professorial, associate dean and senior lecturer levels. Scott’s publications include Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries: Practice and Potential (with Helen Tracey, 2014); Audit Commissions: Reviewing the Reviewers (with Kate Jones, 2013); Restraining Elective Dictatorship: The Upper House Solution? (with Nicholas Aroney and JR Nethercote, 2008); Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia (2006); Policy and Change: The Howard Mandate (with Graeme Starr, 1997). He is a graduate of the University of Queensland and Griffith University.

PETER SHERGOLD is the Chancellor of Western Sydney University. Born in England, he became a lecturer in economics at the University of New South Wales after moving to Australia in 1972. He was appointed as head of the university’s economic history department in 1985. For 20 years he was a senior Australian public servant and, in the Howard years, was successively the Public Service Commissioner; Secretary of the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business; Secretary of the Department of Education, Science and Training; and Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Peter now has a portfolio career, serving on a range of private, public and not-for-profit boards.

GRAEME STARR has taught politics, policy and management in a number of universities in Australia and North America, served as adviser to prime ministers, premiers and other senior ministers in Canberra and Sydney, and worked in professional roles as federal research director and New South Wales Liberal state director. His wide range of publications include several books, the most recent of which deals with the ‘Howard mandate’ (with Scott Prasser, 1997), the long history of ‘state aid’, and a biography of former federal education minister and Senate leader Sir John Carrick. Graeme is a graduate of the University of Sydney, Carleton University in Canada, and West Virginia University in the United States.

ANNE TIERNAN is Dean (Engagement) for the Griffith Business School, Griffith University. A political scientist, with earlier careers in government in the Commonwealth and Queensland, and in teaching and consultancy, Anne is respected for her independent, professional and research-informed analysis and commentary on national politics, public administration and public policy. Anne consults regularly to Australian governments at all levels. Professor Tiernan is a national fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and a fellow of ANZSOG. She is chair of the Queensland Independent Remuneration Tribunal and an Acting Ordinary Commissioner of the Crime and Corruption Commission. Anne was previously a member of the Public Records Review Committee of the Queensland State Archives, the Board of Commissioners of the Queensland Public Service Commission and a director of St Rita’s College, Brisbane.

JOHN WARHURST is a specialist in Australian government and politics. He has combined academic analysis of the republic question with pro-republican activism for more than 30 years. John’s publications include ‘Nationalism and Republicanism in Australia: The Evolution of Institutions, Citizenship and Symbols’, Australian Journal of Political Science (1993); From Constitutional Convention to Republic Referendum: A Guide to the Processes, the Issues and the Participants, Parliamentary Library (1999); Constitutional Politics: The Republic Referendum and the Future, edited with Malcolm Mackerras (2002); and The Trajectory of the Australian Republic Debate, Papers on Parliament (2009). He was co-chair of the YES committee in the Australian Capital Territory for the 1999 referendum and chair of the Australian Republican Movement, 2002–2005. John is emeritus professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, where he was professor of Political Science, 1993–2008. He has also been president of the Australian Political Studies Association.

MICHAEL WESLEY is Professor of International Affairs and Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He has previously worked at UNSW and Griffith University, was Assistant Director-General for Transnational Issues at the Office of National Assessments and has been executive director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Michael is a board member of the Australia-China Council, the CEDA State Advisory Council for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; and the Australian Federal Police Commissioner’s Advisory Board. His book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia won the 2011 John Button Prize for the best writing on Australian politics and public policy. Michael’s most recent publication is Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia’s New Geopolitics (2015).

HUGH WHITE is Professor of Strategic Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. He studies Australian strategic and defence policy, and the regional and global security issues affecting Australia. Hugh has been an intelligence analyst, a journalist, a senior staffer to Kim Beazley and Bob Hawke, a senior official in the Defence Department, and the first director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He was the principal author of Australia’s 2000 Defence White Paper. Hugh’s recent publications include the Quarterly Essay Power Shift: Australia’s Future between Washington and Beijing (2010) and The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power (2013).

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed by contributors are their own opinions and do not necessarily represent the position of the Commonwealth of Australia, the University of New South Wales, the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia, the National Party of Australia or any organisations with which the contributors were or are now associated. The publication of their chapter in this book does not imply any official agreement or formal concurrence with any opinion, criticism, conclusion or recommendation attributed to them.

PREFACE

TOM FRAME

When is the best time to review a discrete period in political history? The traditional wisdom is three decades later when the archives are opened and the official records become available to researchers. There is much to commend this advice, noting that the closed period for official records in Australia is gradually being reduced from 30 to 20 years. This might be the best time but is there a right time, given the possibility that many of the principal participants may have died or be unable to recall what was said and done? There are a few possible answers.

The first is when useful comparisons can be made or when clear conclusions are possible. This might be as little as seven to ten years if circumstances change sufficiently to allow commentators to view the past as being demonstrably different or as a distinct moment in history. The passage of time allows for rival policies to be contrasted or the consequences of a former policy to be assessed more objectively.

The second possible answer is when all the participants have left public office and their commentary lacks an immediate political dimension. This would usually take 10 to 20 years. As private citizens, former parliamentarians are better positioned to be more candid about their political failings and even-handed in their assessment of former adversaries and their achievements. Of course, some remain combatants for the rest of their lives and see their former opponents as perpetual enemies. But the past does look different with the benefit of both hindsight and freedom from the rigours of party-room discipline.

The third possibility is entirely arbitrary: when one or two decades have passed or when a notable anniversary is observed. Deciding to look back after 10 or 20 years is a natural human inclination and the decision to do so need not be linked to any contemporary concern or compelling question. In this sense, it avoids charges of opportunism or partisanship. A tenth or twentieth anniversary retrospective conveniently reflects some of the benefits conveyed in the previous two options. After ten years the times have changed and after 20 years the people have changed.

As I write in 2018, the passing of just over a decade after the Coalition’s conclusive defeat to the Rudd-led Labor Opposition appears to be a timely moment to review the least controversial period of Coalition rule on three grounds.

First, the Howard Government had been consigned to history by November 2017. The former Turnbull Government was compared to the Abbott Government rather than the Howard Government. The only members of the fourth and final Howard ministry still in parliament were Julie Bishop (then the education minister, and later the foreign minister), Tony Abbott (then the health minister, now a former prime minister), Malcolm Turnbull (then the environment minister, and later the Prime Minister) and Kevin Andrews (then immigration minister, now a backbencher). These former Howard government ministers are not actively involved in defending the Coalition’s record in the period 1996–2007 although Tony Abbott, before he became leader of the Liberal Party in December 2009, claimed in his book, Battlelines, that the next Coalition Government ought to be guided by the successes of the Howard years.

Second, the Howard Government’s record in office was no longer a matter for political debate. It had become the subject of historical inquiry. But commentators drew contrasts between the decade-long stability of the Howard years, with some concluding it was a period of effective and efficient government compared with the conflict, chaos, uncertainty and upheaval of the ensuing decade. While the Howard Government has no shortage of critics, many concluded that its albeit flawed performance was markedly better than the fraught administrations led by Kevin Rudd (on two occasions), Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

Third, researchers are able to draw on a growing body of primary and secondary sources to inform their work. John Howard, Tim Fischer, John Anderson, Peter Costello, Andrew Robb, Peter Reith and Tony Abbott have produced memoirs and autobiographies that add colour and some candour to the Coalition’s achievements between 1997 and 2001 (the focus of this book). David Kemp has continued to write expansively about classical liberal political philosophy but much less in the autobiographical mode. Three works on the first two Howard governments (each work is assessed later in this collection) give contemporary appraisals of the Coalition’s performance. Although they lack the distance needed for a more comprehensive analysis, they give a sense of what commentators thought of the Howard Government at that time and offer assessments of the challenges it appeared to be facing.

For these reasons, this is the right time to be considering the second and third years of the first Howard Government and the first 32 months of the second Howard Government. The opening volume in this four-part series considered the 1996 election and the Coalition’s first year in office. This second volume examines the period from January 1997 when the Workplace Relations Act 1996 came into operation until the Aston by-election held in July 2001. The aim of this volume is not dissimilar to that of the first: an examination of the Howard years with the full benefit of hindsight. The contributors were chosen either for their experience or expertise. They participated in the events being described or have published previously on this period. The contributors were asked to identify where the Coalition made mistakes and failed to achieve its objectives. They were also asked to identify the issues that researchers might consider when the official records become available. In the case of 1997, the records will become available on 1 January 2019. Records created in 1998 and 1999 will enter the open access period on 1 January 2020 and those from 2000 the following January. The closed period for Cabinet notebooks has been reduced from 50 to 30 years; those created in 1990 will become available on 1 January 2021.

As an exercise in assessing objectivity, comparable works on the Hawke Labor governments (1983–1991) are a guide to where the difficulties might lie. There have been two comprehensive studies of the Hawke Government. The first marked the twentieth anniversary of Labor’s election victory in 1983. The second was prompted by the election of the Rudd Labor Government in November 2007. The editors of both books also thought they had chosen the right time to publish.

The Hawke Government: A Critical Retrospective, edited by Susan Ryan and Troy Bramston, appeared in 2003. It is a very substantial collection of essays running to nearly 500 pages. Its release marked the twentieth anniversary of the election of the first Hawke Government and closely followed the centenary celebrations of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party in 2001 and the passing of a decade since the longest-serving Labor leader lost the prime ministership to his deputy.¹ When the book appeared in 2003, most of the major players had left politics. The notable exceptions were Kim Beazley and Simon Crean; the former having one more tilt at the Labor leadership and the latter serving as the incumbent leader. Neither played a part in promoting the 1991 leadership spill that saw Paul Keating seize the prime ministership as both were dedicated Hawke supporters.

The collection’s editors were well disposed to the Labor Party. Susan Ryan was a senior minister in the Hawke Government until 1988 when she resigned as a Cabinet minister and from Parliament, having previously had disagreements with her own colleagues about education policy, a portfolio from which she was moved in 1987 to become a special minister of state. Troy Bramston is a News Limited journalist, former principal speechwriter for Kevin Rudd and author of eight books dealing with the Labor Party and its history. As they explain in the preface: an assessment by ‘insiders’ offered the possibility of insights unknown to ‘outsiders’ although the chance of bias remained.

The editors believed their book ‘built on and refers to’ work that had been done, ‘adding new studies and insights, and the useful perspective that comes with the passage of time’. They had sought ‘expert, robust, diverse and relevant contributions. We started with the intention of compiling a positive, although not uncritical retrospective of this dynamic and effective period of government.’

In reviewing the book shortly after publication, Paul Strangio, the biographer of Labor icon Dr Jim Cairns, noted that:

the majority of the contributors are the former ministers or participants of another variety, from the bureaucracy, ministerial offices, and peak interest groups that climbed aboard Hawke’s corporate government train. If it seems an odd cast to achieve a ‘critical retrospective’ on the era, sufficient time has passed to allow mostly considered, informative assessments that are delivered with an admirable absence of chest-puffing.²

Strangio claimed the ‘chapters on education, the environment and immigration further demark Hawke from Keating by suggesting that the regression of the Howard era in those areas started with the Keating government’. He also suggested that Hawke stood apart from ‘the context of a contemporary Australia in which the cultural warriors polarise into Keating and Howard camps’. It seemed that one of the ways of praising Hawke and his legacy was to compare him favourably with Howard and his failings.

The second major review of the period 1983–1991, The Hawke Legacy, was edited by three University of South Australia academics, Gerry Bloustien, Alison Mackinnon and Barbara Comber. The book appeared in 2009. Most of the contributors were ‘connected in various ways with the University of South Australia’s Hawke Research Institute and the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre – two bodies established to recognise the Hawke era by educating the public and fostering new collaborative research based on his perspectives and concerns with social justice’.³

The editors of The Hawke Legacy made no attempt to hide their disdain for the Coalition and its erosion of rights and undermining of reforms dating from the 1980s. This is clearly a partisan work with obvious polemical aspirations.

While the chapters ‘all give credit to the Hawke government for much needed social reform to further equity and diversity’, it is difficult to find any criticisms of Labor rule other than the existence of ‘unfinished business’ that needed to be addressed by the Rudd Government. The phrase, ‘much more remains to be done’, is the most severe censure this book contains before concluding with a ‘tribute’ to the ‘constant mediator’ in which Hawke was praised very much at Howard’s expense.

When taken together, these two collections reveal a series of tensions in the writing of Australia’s recent political history. The first is an inability to give credit where it is due. Second, there is a predisposition to unrelenting criticism of political opponents and a reticence to acknowledge their achievements. Third, there is a lack of attention to the electorate which sees the government blamed for community attitudes that commentators evidently dislike. The fourth tension is the tendency to overlook wider events and trends and to see political leadership being exercised in something resembling a bubble. Fifth, there is a willingness to accept partisan history or, at least, a readiness to engage in polemical commentary under the guise of academic detachment. The sixth tension is a reluctance to accept the limits of government by counselling activity that seems to defy the practice of good economic management or presume the superiority of public provision. The final tension is the desire to impose ill-fitting, often simplistic moral frameworks on complex political processes. What imparts to a political principle a moral dimension, lest everything that politics touches be deemed moral? Notwithstanding these tensions and my implicit criticisms, each book adds to our knowledge of why the Hawke years were creative and productive, and where Bob Hawke’s leadership made a difference to policy debates and procedural decision-making.

Returning to the theme of when is the right time to conduct a retrospective: the timing of the first book is more persuasive and less problematic than the second. The decision of Bramston and Ryan to mark the passage of 20 years made sense. Its motivation was not overtly politically motivated. The volume by Bloustien, Mackinnon and Comber must contend with the objection that it is, in fact, a politically motivated text. This much is effectively conceded by the three editors, who connect the achievements of the Hawke era with what they think the aspirations of the Rudd Government ought to be. The political purpose is clear and readers will, with some justification, assume that some of the assessments have been drafted with partisan conclusions in mind. Notably, neither volume includes a contributor from the Liberal or National parties or from a scholar with known non-Labor affiliations or affections.

This book on the years 1997–2001 is much nearer to the spirit of the first Hawke volume than the second. There are, however, some notable differences worthy of mention. As the editor of this volume and the individual who is solely responsible for commissioning the chapters, readers should be aware that I have no affiliation with the Liberal Party. In fact, I was briefly a financial member of the Labor Party in my youth. I am the Director of the Howard Library at Old Parliament House but it has no connection to the Liberal Party and does not receive political donations. In addition, this volume includes contributions from scholars and commentators who are not known for Coalition sympathies, such as Scott Brenton, John Warhurst and Hugh White. In the interests of balance, one chapter includes a perspective from a senior Labor figure, Stephen Martin. Lastly, those contributors who participated in the Howard Government as parliamentarians or advisors were asked to be candid in identifying where and how the government could and should have done better. They were implored to transcend personal self-justification to reveal their doubts and disappointments with the outcomes of policies and the failure of processes. There is no attempt here to counsel the Morrison Government nor will the writer find exhortations to emulate the Howard Government.

The most engaging chapters in this book are those that reveal when opportunities were not exploited, where