The Howard Factor

John Howard's victory over Paul Keating in 1996 was the start of a quiet revolution that changed Australia forever. His critics told us he was a white-picket-fence conservative, Little Johnnie, Lazarus with a triple bypass. Instead, Howard has driven a decade of reform, reinventing conservative politics and redefining the national debate. In this long-overdue assessment of the Howard years, some of The Australian's leading commentators chart the seismic shift in politics, society, workplaces, culture, the economy, trade and foreign affairs. They describe how Howard has redrawn the political map, turning the conservatives into reformers and forcing the progressives to defend the status quo.