PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Well thank you very much John, and on behalf of our Parliamentary team, on behalf of Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister, deputies Julie Bishop and Fiona Nash, I want to welcome the reunion, the return of what in political terms and Coalition terms, is a reunion of Bradman's Invincibles.
We are here together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a watershed moment in Australia's political life. The end of 13 years of Labor rule and the election of a Coalition team that would deliver one of the greatest periods of prosperity our country has ever known.
I want to acknowledge and recognise, as we all should, all of the members and senators, all of the ministers, all of the members of the staff that worked over the period of the Howard Government to make that Government such an outstanding success. As Peter said, it was a team effort and let us acknowledge that great team.
In particular, I want to acknowledge my predecessor as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.
Tony was a vital, powerful part of the Howard Government but as leader, he led us back into Government and ended the shocking disillusionment and catastrophe of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. Thank you, Tony.
But John, we're here tonight for you. This is John Howard's night. And we want to pay tribute to you and recognise that we as parties, the Liberal and national parties, and as a nation will be forever in your debt. It is a privilege for me, as it has been for Tony, to lead the party of Menzies and of Howard.
Labor likes to boast about its pantheon of great leaders, nobody on our side needs to boast about John Howard. The facts speak unambiguously for themselves. No Prime Minister in our history better positioned our country for the opportunities of the future. By 2007, the Howard Government had a roll call of achievements like no other.
A continuous run of strong, economic growth through more than a decade in office. A re-energised private sector - ready, willing, and able to compete with the world's best. Record low levels of unemployment and a more productive and better paid workforce, and a reputation internationally as a confident, capable, constructive, and powerful power. None of this happened by accident. No Prime Minister in our history, no Government team in our history brought greater consistency of purpose or strength of conviction to national leadership than the Government John Howard led.
But every bit as important to the Howard Government toolkit was an appreciation of what Australians would regard as fair and reasonable in the national interest. John called it the pub test. On every tough call, and there were many, then, as there are now. You had to earn community support, you had to make your case compellingly, you had to win the public trust. This enduring respect for the intelligence and fair mindedness of his fellow Australians was absolutely central to the success of John Howard's Government.
His Government was up front about the challenges and the choices and explained plainly and directly why reform was necessary to improve the lives of Australians. Under John's leadership, policy preparation was patient, thorough, and forensic. Ministers brought ideas to the table. They were debated vigorously and decided on the evidence.
John's chief advisers were his ministers. National Party leadership offered rock solid support, whether Tim Fischer or John Anderson or Mark Vaile, as it has been since with Warren Truss, now with Barnaby Joyce. The Coalition held fast and firm, through all the many challenges, it was a partnership built on a common sense collegial approach. John understood the Westminster parliamentary tradition.
He understood that he was first among equals. He had and has in his DNA a deep understanding of Parliament. John, you're a great Prime Minister, a great leader, but you are also a great parliamentarian, you understand this institution.
If you couldn't persuade your Cabinet colleagues a policy proposal was the right one for the country, how could you expect to make the change cogently across the broader community. There were many big and brave decisions. Courage and principle was powerfully on display in the introduction of tougher gun control laws, and in taking the lead in the United Nations intervention to stop a humanitarian disaster in the aftermath of East Timor's independence vote.
But nowhere was the Howard Government's imprint more evident and more crucial to the general wellbeing of Australians today and in the years to come, than in its epic achievements in economic management. John has spoken of that continuum of economic reform and modernisation in Australia, from the 80s through to the end of the Howard era.
Confident, full-spectrum engagement by Australia in global markets. The deregulation of sclerotic and under-performing domestic markets, a restructuring of the tax system to replace outdated and inefficient taxes and a sober, responsible approach to public finances to ensure that Government taxing and spending was not crowding out or constraining the dynamism of our private sector.
John Howard understood business so well. So many politicians talk about business. John had business in his DNA. He understood business enterprise, entrepreneurship in a way that very few politicians before or since have ever been able to do. And with Peter Costello, not probably the best Treasurer, but without any question, the best Treasurer in our history, we had in Peter in charge of the Budget, $96 billion in Government debt left to us by Labor, eliminated.
Peter introduced a new tax system, eliminated over 30 inefficient taxes, replaced them with a single national consumption tax. Telstra, big telco, formerly the Postmaster General’s department, was unleashed from public ownership. The Budget was brought into balance within two years followed by a string of strong Budget surpluses through to 2007.
Provision was made for long-term public sector liabilities, super liabilities through the Future Fund. When we left office, when John left office, there was $45 billion in cash at the bank. That is as impressive a record as there has been for any Treasurer since our federation. Peter brought to the role a searing intellect, a sophisticated understanding of the economic imperatives, a lawyer's steely mind and he represents the gold standard for strong, sensible stewardship of the Budget.
The Howard Government left Australia in perhaps the most enviable position of any advanced economy in the world. And then, sadly, along came Kevin and his friends. And we all know what happened next. It is to Tony Abbott's great credit that he fought so tenaciously to bring down the Curtin on the folly and recklessness on that era of Labor Governments.
Now repairing the damage done by the extravagance of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd led debacle will be a challenge for us and our government for many years to come. That is why the Howard model, applying those same principles of prudent responsible policy making is as important to Australians today as it was a decade ago.
When I became Prime Minister, I said the Howard Government was the gold standard, and I meant it. His operating principle of collegial, consultative Westminster-style Cabinet Government delivered sound policy outcomes and superb management. It was and remains the gold standard. And I am very fortunate, as your Prime Minister, to have by my side two of the pillars of John Howard's gold standard Government in Arthur Sinodinos as the Cabinet Secretary, and Tony Nutt as the Federal director of the Liberal Party.
John has been a remarkable mentor. His leadership, his guidance, his wisdom has shaped the lives of all of us here, many beyond this room. As everyone is aware, John was very influential in my decision to rejoin the Liberal Party in 2000 and in support of his leadership I held the position of honorary Federal Treasurer of the party.
Which I must say, with due respect to all the other former Opposition leaders present, is without doubt the worst job in politics. It is the only job in politics when you approach your friends, they will run in front of buses to avoid you, if an election is in the offing. John promoted me first as his Parliamentary Secretary, responsible for water policy and then as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. In those capacities I had the great honour of supporting John in his great reform and it's his great reform, of ensuring that the management of the Murray-Darling Basin came under federal leadership.
Now this was something that should have been agreed to in the 1890s. Kind of obvious if you think about it that interstate water should be under Federal leadership. John Howard saw that crisis of the drought 2006-2007 and never wasting a crisis, he saw the opportunity to make good an omission of more than a century ago.
He affected that great reform. John, at a very personal level, you gave me great encouragement to stay in politics after I lost the leadership of the party in 2009 and feeling fairly bleak about things, had to resolve to retire. At that time nothing was further from my mind than returning to the leadership, let alone becoming Prime Minister.
I vividly recall John saying to me at the time in his office in Sydney, "You know, they may have you back as leader, but it will take a long time." I didn't see that as encouragement, I should add, but rather a very Howard-like musing based on his own experience. There is a very deep and thoughtful wisdom behind those eyebrows.
Now John, I want to say and cite our fellow Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott in this. Tony has often said very wisely that we politicians are the volunteers and our families are the conscripts. And, of course some of those conscripts are more enthusiastic than others. John, you acknowledge and we know, that you and Jeanette have been one of the most remarkable teams in politics ever.
You, your family, and I acknowledge Melanie who is here tonight, your daughter, of course Tim and Richard are not here, but your family has been so tight, so solid, your source of strength. When things were bleak and they were from time to time, as they are generally in most political careers, your family was like a rock of inspiration and energising inspiration that kept you going and when you felt like you were about to fall down on the mat, they got you up going again.
Jeanette, John could not have done for Australia what he did without you and we owe you an equal debt.
I want to say I think I owe you a very significant personal debt too, Jeanette. As you recall, John and I have had a few differences over the years over a few issues, like Republics, things like that. I always felt that the reason why, John, we were able to maintain always a good friendship, even when we were disagreeing, was because Jeanette always felt that Lucy Hughes could not be married to someone who was entirely bad, and I think your example and your practical affection and support for John has been a great example for me, and for Lucy. Lucy and I salute you two, the greatest political couple of our times.
So, finally may I just say this, John, you are the gold standard. I judge everything I do by the way you operated. These are different times and different challenges and we are different Prime Ministers, obviously. But nonetheless, you brought to the leadership of this country a discipline and a respect for the Cabinet system which is a system that has been built up over hundreds of years of wisdom in this country and in Britain and in other countries with our Westminster tradition. You respected that.
And the template, in my view, my considered view, for capable, confident, considered policy making is one of the golden threads of the Howard legacy. It is and will remain long after all of us have moved on to other avocations, the key to the Coalition's success. Thank you very much and congratulations John Howard.
Ends