Leading a nation

He was Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister, leading the country from 1996 to 2007.

“In the time that’s gone by since I left politics – or should I say, more accurately, since politics left me – there is no doubt that people have frequently said, ‘What really constitutes good leadership?’ And there’s no simple answer to that,” he says.

THOSE AROUND YOU

Mr Howard says the main reason his time as prime minister wasn’t marred by the internal leadership rumblings, leadership challenges and media speculation that have plagued the current government was his ability to lead those closest to him.

“The relationship between a leader and what I call the ‘immediately led’ is very important,” he says. “In a political party, it’s the relationship between the prime minister and his or her cabinet ministers or parliamentary party.

“We’ve seen some examples. We’ve seen one in recent years in relation to the man who defeated me in 2007, Kevin Rudd, where obviously his relationship with the people immediately around him had become dysfunctional.

“And it’s an extraordinary phenomenon of modern politics that a political party should have waited for almost 12 years in Opposition, to then find somebody who was successful and then, that person having been successful, they remove him before he’s had the chance to seek re-election.

“In my humble view, that still remains one of the explanations for the great unpopularity of the present government. It’s not the only reason – there are other reasons – but it is one of the reasons. It confuses people and you should never confuse your own supporters.

“You don’t attack your customers and you don’t attack your own supporters. You don’t confuse them.”

VALUE PROPOSITION

People will, however, only support and follow you if you have a “well-defined set of values”, according to Mr Howard.

“The most important ingredient of good leadership in a political context – and I dare say that it’s important in the context of business as well – is that you need to have a well-defined set of values.

“If you don’t believe in anything and you don’t understand why you believe in certain things, you really are going to be a failure as a political leader.”

Mr Howard says one of the comments he enjoys hearing most about his contribution to Australian politics is: ‘Well, I disagree with a lot of things that he stands for, but I know exactly where he stands and what he believes’.

Plenty of people loved him and plenty loathed him, Mr Howard adds, but if people came out of political combat knowing what he stood for and why, then he had done his job properly.

EAR TO THE GROUND

The next most important aspect of leadership, according to Mr Howard, is the ability to listen to those who support you and those who don’t.

“Politicians who don’t listen, political leaders who don’t listen, business owners who don’t listen, corporate executives who don’t listen are destined, in my view, to fail.

“That doesn’t mean you go on listening forever,” he continues. “My experience in politics was a combination of listening and sometimes – indeed, quite often – deciding to do what the great bulk of people had suggested I do. But on occasions, I applied my own judgement and went against the bulk of the advice that I was offered.”

Sometimes those decisions, such as to introduce the Goods and Services Tax or take the nation to the war in Iraq, were to prove unpopular, but being able to make the tough calls is part and parcel of being a good leader.

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

One thing that both Mr Howard’s supporters and his opponents tend to agree on – and stand behind – is the landmark introduction of gun control legislation in the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

This action, widely regarded as his greatest and most enduring achievement, was apolitical, according to Mr Howard.

“It’s not a left/right, liberal/conservative issue; it’s a public safety common sense issue,” he says.

“Sadly, on this particular issue, there is a huge divide between Australia and the United States.”

Mr Howard says his other notable achievements are cutting spending and balancing the Budget; reforming the taxation system and the labour market; and “standing shoulder to shoulder with America in the fight against terrorism”.

The enduring strength of the economy, he says, has ultimately helped Australia step up onto the world stage.

“If you have a strong economy, you have a strong, authoritative voice in the world politically and diplomatically,” he concludes.

JOHN HOWARD’S VIEW OF THE WORLD

Delegates at the MFAA convention heard Mr Howard’s presentation; if you missed it, here are some of his thoughts on what’s happening around the world

UNITED STATES

“MY BEST hunch is that the United States is slowly recovering. Consumer spending is getting stronger. Although their unemployment levels are quite high historically, they are starting to come down and there’s a growing level of consumer confidence in the United States.

“I have always seen the American economy as having a great virtue that the European economies, in some aspects, and the Australian economy don’t have. That is that it’s fundamentally unregulated and therefore when it begins to recover, it recovers very, very aggressively.”

EUROPE

“EUROPE REMAINS very problematic. The great problem in Europe is that the structural changes that we made in Australia have not been undertaken.

“I think the eurozone has been, relatively speaking, a failure because it failed to realise that you can’t have a monetary union without having a fiscal union. You can’t give the ECB (European Central Bank) control over interest rates and monetary policy without giving [it] some central authority over spending and taxation.

“If I were a European, I’d be a Euro-sceptic. If I lived in the United Kingdom, I’d be a Euro-sceptic because it’s inevitably turned out to be a far more centralising force, both politically and economically, than was originally intended.”

CHINA

“CHINA REPRESENTS an enormous opportunity for Australia. We’ve already taken great advantage of it and both sides of politics have made a contribution to it. In thinking about the relationship between Australia and that huge country, my one suggestion is to not be mesmerised by what China might be able to achieve.

“It is true that China is now the second largest economy in the world behind the United States. That is overwhelmingly due, of course, to its sheer population size – on a per-capita GDP basis, China is still a long way behind the United States and Australia and so many other countries.

“I hold the view that you cannot forever run a liberally-based economy and have an authoritarian political structure. A generation whose parents lived in poverty are enjoying a relatively stable middle-class life and might be happy to have decisions taken from them by a political elite – because they enjoy the liberation from the poverty. But their children who have taken that comfortable existence for granted, are going to have a different view and I think inevitably there is going to be pressure in China to bring about change.”

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

“I GET irritated when I hear people talk about Australia having to make a choice between the United States and China. Nothing could be more ridiculous. We should spend our waking hours diplomatically making sure that choice never arises because both of those countries are very important to Australia.

“The United States will always be closer – let’s not muck about with that assessment – for the very simple reason that the values of that country and our values are more similar.

“But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t approach this in a pragmatic way. And the idea that China has aggressive designs in this part of the world is misplaced.

“Like all countries that are growing in strength, they are increasing their defence capacity. But they are too pre-occupied maintaining an internal balance and building their economy to be formulating aggressive designs on other countries.”

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

“WHEN THE prime minister and the treasurer and others tell you that the Australian economy is doing better than most – they are right.

“We are still fortunate that we have an unemployment rate with a five in front of it. I wouldn’t have thought that was going to be possible a few years ago, and I don’t think many people would have. So our unemployment has remained pleasingly quite low.

“Our debt-to-GDP ratio, the amount of money we owe to the strength of our economy, is still a lot better than most other countries.

“The problem is that in an international environment, in a globalised world economy, you have people who are in that foot race who are trying to get past you, and the problem about slowing down in that foot race – even if you can’t ever get to the finishing line – is that if you slow down, other people are going to go past you.

“That is a bit like what is happening at the present time. We’ve been doing well in that foot race for about 25 years, but we’re now starting to slow down. The finishing line is still receding, but we are now starting to slow down.”