Category Archives: John Howard

Howard-era files on Iraq war went missing due to ‘major breakdown’, inquiry finds

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Inability of staff to inspect cabinet records means they were were not released to the national archives, as was usual

A “forgotten” box of cabinet records and a series of administrative errors are among the reasons why a tranche of Howard-era documents was mistakenly kept from public release earlier this year.

An independent review into why 82 cabinet records from 2003 were not handed to the national archives, released on Tuesday, found there was no political interference or influence at play.

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Greens demand full release of government documents on ‘disastrous’ decision to join Iraq invasion

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Nick McKim says national security committee documents used to justify the war may answer questions about momentous foreign policy decision

The release of the 2003 cabinet papers “barely scratches the surface” of the Howard government’s “disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq” and reinforces the need for a parliamentary vote before committing Australia to future wars, Greens senator Nick McKim has said.

McKim has demanded the full release of all national security committee and cabinet documents related to the 2003 decision, which committed Australia to the US-led “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq.

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Australia went to war in Iraq based on ‘oral reports’ to cabinet from John Howard

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Cabinet papers from 2003 show there was no formal submission before decision was taken to join US-led ‘coalition of the willing’

Australia joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, one of the most contentious decisions of John Howard’s prime ministership, without a formal cabinet submission setting out a full analysis of the risks.

Cabinet papers published by the National Archives on Monday show the full cabinet signed off on the decision on 18 March 2003 based on “oral reports by the prime minister”.

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Sliding doors: cabinet papers reveal how close Coalition came to endorsing emissions trading in 2003

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The Howard government drafted a statement declaring its support for an emissions trading scheme before abruptly changing course

The Howard government drafted a statement declaring its support for an emissions trading scheme 20 years ago, only for the idea to be scuttled by business lobbying, newly released documents show.

Cabinet papers from 2003, released by the National Archives on Monday, show the then Coalition government was in possession of clear advice from Treasury that a broad-based market mechanism would be the cheapest way to reduce emissions.

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Howard government worked with Canada to oppose UN declaration on Indigenous rights

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Cabinet papers from 2003 show the government pursued talks without consulting peak Indigenous body – which it then abolished

The Howard government fought strongly against recognising the right of Indigenous peoples to “self-determination” and worked secretly with Canada to try to change a draft UN declaration, newly released cabinet papers show.

The cabinet papers from 2003, released by the National Archives on Monday, show that some Australian government departments held concerns about potential impacts of the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples, but Australia’s talks with Canada on amendments were being pursued with “no Indigenous consultation about the process or its product” as such input would be “premature”.

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Paul Keating says voice referendum was ‘wrong fight’ and has ‘ruined the game’ for a treaty

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Exclusive: Former PM accuses John Howard and Tony Abbott of ‘outrageously and wilfully misinterpreting’ result in attempt to return to ‘great assimilation project’

Indigenous Australians were always “fighting the wrong fight” with a voice to parliament, the former prime minister Paul Keating has said, and the failure of the referendum has now “ruined the game” for a treaty that could have properly acknowledged prior Indigenous ownership and dispossession.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Keating accused the former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, and the historian Geoffrey Blainey, of “outrageously and wilfully misinterpreting” the referendum result in an attempt to return to “the great assimilation project”.

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Tony Abbott and John Howard join Jordan Peterson-led group looking at ‘meaning of life’

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Alliance for Responsible Citizenship includes prominent Brexit voices and Bjørn Lomborg, who has questioned the urgency of the climate crisis

The former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard are among six Australians who have joined a global group fronted by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and backed by a pro-Brexit hedge fund billionaire and a Dubai-based investment group.

The group – The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) – has been gathering high-profile figures from politics, industry, academia and thinktanks for an inaugural three-day conference in London in late October.

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Australia politics live: Howard says Labor’s dominance won’t last long; emissions bill haggling down to the wire

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The government is yet to strike a deal that will get its safeguard mechanism bill through the upper house. Follow the day’s politics live

Paul Fletcher won’t answer the question of whether or not he will run again in Bradfield.

He is dancing around this question like he is auditioning for the new Fred Astaire biopic. (Tom Holland has the role, and anyone who has seen his Umbrella dance will know why.)

I continue to consider serving the people of Bradfield to be an enormous privilege and … any rational politician always considers what they’re going to do as you come to the end of each term.

I’ve done that before the end of each past term, but what I can tell you is it’s an honour to serve the people of Bradfield. I continue to be committed to it, energetic in doing, so I spent most of Saturday across a whole range of polling booths engaging with my constituents. I enjoyed it. I found it energising, and I believe that the Liberal party has a very important role in serving the people of Australia and certainly in serving the people of Bradfield and that’s something I’m committed to.

I think the first point is that after three terms and 12 years, inevitably, it becomes harder to win a fourth term.

It’s the nature of our democracy of Australian democracy that the electorate starts to look for alternatives.

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Philip Ruddock’s Sydney council challenges legality of GST levies on local government

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Exclusive: Hornsby mayor was a cabinet minister in Howard government when it introduced the tax in 2000

A Sydney council led by the former Howard government minister Philip Ruddock is spearheading a high court case arguing that GST levied on local councils is unconstitutional.

The challenge by Hornsby shire council questions the legality of the goods and services tax it has paid since it was first introduced by the Howard government in 2000.

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John Howard’s government considered letting offshore detainees into Australia in 2002

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Cabinet papers 2002: records show there were growing concerns about management of asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore detention centres

The year 2002 started with traumatised asylum seekers sewing their lips together in protest at their incarceration, and ended with the federal government urgently planning a detention centre on Christmas Island.

John Howard and his cabinet were facing growing criticism over long-term detention as they increasingly enforced boat turnbacks and offshore detention in an effort to stop asylum seekers reaching the mainland.

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John Howard overrode George Pell’s objections to allow research using surplus IVF embryos

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Cabinet papers 2002: PM lifted ban despite opposition of conservatives and religious leaders, including then Archbishop Pell

John Howard’s decision to allow stem cell research using surplus IVF embryos might surprise people “who saw Howard as only a rightwing person”, the former senator and cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone has said.

Despite opposition from conservative and religious groups, and despite seeking advice from the then Catholic archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, the former Liberal prime minister lifted the national ban in 2002.

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Graphic film of Bali bombings at Kuta memorial ‘ripped our hearts apart’, son of terror victim says

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Australian government says it will formally register concern over gruesome film shown to hundreds at ceremony in Indonesia

A graphic, gruesome film screened at Kuta’s ground zero monument marking the 20th anniversary of the Bali bombings has upset and angered some friends and relatives of the dead.

The Australian government said on Thursday it would formally register its concerns with Indonesian authorities over the event.

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‘Hello it’s John Howard calling’: former PM says Liberal party asked him to ‘campaign extensively’

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The current prime minister is unpopular in city marginal seats, so the Coalition is banking on robocalls and letterbox drops from Howard to sway voters

Australians might have been sitting down for dinner about 7pm on Monday, or tuning in to the news, but for those living in marginal seats there was a chance they were interrupted – by the former prime minister John Howard.

“Hello it’s John Howard calling from Sydney for the Liberal party,” were the words voters in seats such as North Sydney, Wentworth and Hughes heard when they answered their landlines and mobile phones.

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Scott Morrison refuses press conference as John Howard calls teal independents ‘anti-Liberal groupies’

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Warringah MP Zali Steggall accuses former prime minister of using ‘appalling sexist language’

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, did not take questions from media on Saturday – despite addressing a campaign rally and touring a boating, camping and fishing store for the cameras on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Labor has repeatedly criticised the prime minister for “going missing” on the Solomon Islands security deal with China, with questions raised over when the federal government became aware of the draft security pact.

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Australia urged to help Afghan allies under threat from Taliban – video

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After 20 years on the ground, Australian and allied forces have rapidly exited Afghanistan – ending Australia’s longest war. The Taliban has launched a nationwide offensive and violently acquired territory from the Afghan government, leaving local workers who once assisted the Australian defence force fearing for their lives. In this  extract from Guardian Australia's Full Story podcast, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to Afghan interpreter Naser Ahmadi about how aiding Australian forces put him and his family in danger, and reporter Ben Doherty explores the situation in Afghanistan and why some Afghan workers have been left behind

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Australia fires live: NSW and Victoria bushfires insurance bill tops $700m – latest updates

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Rain falls on some NSW, Victorian and South Australian bushfire-affected areas, but worse fire conditions are forecast to return. Follow all today’s latest news and live updates

Andrew Crisp:

Speaking with the incident controller here at Bairnsdale a short time ago, some of our concern is the fires up in the alpine area, around Omeo, and the potential for them to travel south with the northerly and join the fires down in this part of the world.

We saw, only a few days ago, where there were more than 300 people on the oval at Omeo where some helicopters were there to take people out.

The Victorian emergency commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has an update:

There are three communities we haven’t been able to drive in. When I say ‘drive’ even with those other communities it is basically bushtracks and emergency vehicles to get in, it is where there is no real road access.

We’ve been able to get helicopters and sat phones in to make sure people have supplies.

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Cabinet papers 1998-99: Coalition’s campaign to unleash the GST laid bare

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Tax reform dominated debate, as ministers discussed East Timor and the 2000 Olympics – and resisted climate action

On 1 July Australia’s goods and services tax will have been in place for 20 years. It is uncontroversial in concept, with no major party advocating its abolition. Every so often there are calls for it to be increased from 10% or expanded – calls that are usually rebuffed.

But just how fraught the GST was to introduce is one of the key insights from the release of cabinet papers by the National Archives of Australia, covering the years 1998 and 1999. There were other concerns: East Timor’s independence, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the failed republican referendum, and familiar resistance to doing anything but the minimum on climate change.

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‘Not welcome’ in Australia: from Tampa refugee to Fulbright scholar, via New Zealand

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New Zealand gave a home, and hope, to Abbas Nazari. He wishes all refugee children could be given the same chance

Abbas Nazari was stranded on a ship in the Indian ocean when he first heard the words “New Zealand”.

Then aged 7, Nazari’s mother, father and four siblings were among 430 asylum seekers, predominantly of the ethnic minority Hazaras of Afghanistan, plucked from a sinking fishing boat by the Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa. They were later transferred to the HMAS Manoora, where they waited for asylum after Australia refused to accept them; creating an international quagmire over which country would, or should, offer sanctuary on humanitarian grounds.

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Nothing new in Coalition’s nuclear awakening. No wait, perhaps there is

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Could this be the catalyst for the Coalition of 2019 to reconnect itself with the position it adopted in 2007 for sound reasons?

Fair warning before we kick off this weekend. Increasingly, I’m reaching that stage of my professional life where I can be heard muttering, and sometimes shouting, I’m too bloody old for this.

My long-suffering colleagues in the Canberra bureau of Guardian Australia have absorbed bouts of muttering and shouting over the past few weeks as various Nationals and some Liberals have lined up post-election to support a new inquiry into nuclear energy, as if this might be a light bulb moment.

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Federal election 2019: Bill Shorten says Labor ‘the only game in town’ on wages – politics live

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Labor leader wants to bring together business groups and unions for meeting, as Bob Hawke calls Shorten a ‘consensus leader’. All the day’s events, live

Today the high court has released its full reasons for its decision in the case brought by former Liberal National Queensland president Gary Spence to challenge Queensland’s developer donation ban. Orders were delivered in April upholding Queensland’s ban, closing a loophole that would have allowed developers to donate to candidates in the federal election campaign.

The first thing to note is that Spence did not come close to winning on the point of whether the ban impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication.

Scott Morrison ‘aspiration’ count:

14 May – 21 times

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