Politics - so many colleagues but no one is a friend
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Revealed: the moment John Howard accepted he was beaten
Gerard McManus
February 18, 2008
FORMER prime minister John Howard knew on election day he was doomed, telling a confidant he was "dead meat".
In an explosive ABC Four Corners program, airing tonight, senior Liberal Party colleagues reveal how they repeatedly tried to get him to step aside in favour of the then treasurer Peter Costello.
Former workplace relations minister Joe Hockey admits on the program that he had no idea WorkChoices would leave workers worse off.
And another former minister, Andrew Robb, says WorkChoices was the most powerful symbol that the government had lost touch with "Howard's battlers".
Tonight's Four Corners recounts the disintegration of the Howard government in its last year.
But it also reveals more details about the leadership paralysis born of the secret Howard-Costello succession "deal" brokered by Ian McLachlan in the mid-1990s, before the Coalition won power.
It says Mr Costello was reluctant to enter the deal, which would have resulted in a hand-over after 1 1/2 terms.
And Mr Costello tells the program that Mr Howard, who ultimately served four terms, chose to hold on to the prime ministership despite knowing his deputy would quit politics if the government lost in November.
Mr Costello says that, in the end, there was never any chance of Mr Howard going of his own volition.
"I don't think he was ever going to stand down," Mr Costello said.
"I think every time he considered it, he decided he was going to stay."
But former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer insists that, had the Costello forces restrained themselves during 2006, Mr Howard would have gone quietly in December that year.
Mr Robb, a Victorian MP and former federal party director, says Mr Howard should have been forced out.
And Senate leader Nick Minchin reveals he personally tried to get Mr Howard to quit, approaching the PM's right-hand man, Arthur Sinodinos, and Mr Downer before the Howard government's 10th anniversary in 2006.
But Victorian senator Judith Troeth says Mr Costello's failure to win the leadership was his own fault, because he treated his colleagues with disdain.
Mr Costello also concedes the Howard government should have ratified the Kyoto protocol years before it became an electoral liability.
"I think people would have listened to what we were doing, which was quite substantive on climate change, if we'd ratified it," Mr Costello says.
Even Howard loyalist Tony Abbott concedes it was a mistake not to ratify the UN treaty.
The Four Corners report, "Howard's End" will be screened at 8.30pm.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23229905-661,00.html
