Five Minutes with Former Prime Minister John Howard

Posted on 26 September, 2014

The man known for his conservative yet tough reign, celebrated Menzie’s prime ministership with the book release of his ‘assessment of Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister’, The Menzies Era.

Attorney General George Brandis describes it is as an exhibition that brings together two of our greatest prime ministers, yet listening and talking to former Prime Minister John Howard at its launch earlier this month his humbleness is clear, strong and on show for everyone to witness. His search for recognition as a former leader of our country takes more than a back seat to his competing passions—cricket, Australian history and of course, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies.

To serve as the nation’s leader for 16 years was certainly not what anyone, not even Menzies himself, expected when voted in as Australia’s Prime Minister on the evening of 10 December, 1949. But John Howard will forever remember that day. Sharing his personal reflections and insights into Menzies’ short, intense first term(1939-41), the exhibition showcases personal items belonging to Menzies including the infamous desk.

Earlier this week, the man known for his eyebrows and conservative yet tough reign, celebrated Menzie’s prime ministership with the book release of his ‘assessment of Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister’, The Menzies Era.

Menzies’s faithful decisions and actions and his achievements including the signing of the ANZUS treaty, expanding universities and presiding over a strong economy with a growing middle class, are just some of the attributes that make him Australia’s greatest Prime Minister according to Howard. I spoke with him to learn more…

Why Robert Menzies? What, in your opinion makes him Australia’s greatest Prime Minister?

John Howard: Well, he laid the foundations of modern Australia, he governed for longer than anybody else and he staged a remarkable come back from rejection that would have destroyed a lesser man.

Menzies, has left quite legacy what do you think your greatest legacy has been?

John Howard: That is for other people to judge.

I can only imagine the number of important decisions that have been made and speeches written at Menzie’s desk, the very one to which you had moved across to your office at Parliament House, can you speak about this?

John Howard: About the desk? Well, I wanted to use the desk myself because it was a part of the Australian history and had been used by Prime Ministers on both sides of politics…by Menzies…by Chifley…by Curtin…by Bruce…by Lyons and I felt I was part of the continuum of Australian history doing the same thing.

What are the lessons from Menzies and your era in terms of the difficulty in which governments face when making decisions about war?*

The most serious decision any government does is to put the lives of its young men and women in the armed forces at risk. Now, it’s an incredibly difficult decision. I’m not going to comment about the current situation, that’s not fair to the Prime Minister and his colleagues. Except to observe that it is the most serious thing that one does.

Do you think war has changed a lot since Menzies had to make his decisions back in ’39?* 

Well, it’s both changed and it hasn’t changed. There were aggressions in 1939 and there are aggressions now, but you must be very careful not to ignore the lessons of history or draw false analogies of history. You have to judge each situation on its own merits.

What do you hope visitors to the Menzies By John Howard exhibition will take away from it?

John Howard: I hope they will learn more about the history of that period and the difficulties that he faced during a critical time for Australia.

Mr Howard, it’s no secret that you love your cricket as much as you love Australian political history. What are your thoughts on Canberra playing host to three of the International Cricket Council’s Cricket World Cup matches next year?

John Howard: It’s terrific, I think it’s great. Manuka Oval is a wonderful playing ground.

Can we expect to see you at any of the matches?

John Howard: I hope so, I hope so.

*Questions were asked within a small media conference. 

The essentials

What: Menzies: By John Howard

Where: Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

When: On display until September 2015. Old Parliament House, home to the Museum of Australian Democracy is open daily 9am–5pm,
How much: Free after admission ($2 adults, $1 children and concessions, $5 family).