mikk,

You said "You seem to be saying that since there is an underworld of racism, meanness and bigotry in Australian society, a leader that exploits it shouldnt be condemned as a divisive, dog whistling scumbag.
Beg to differ there mate".

No, I am not saying that all. While I am much more generous than you in my views of the Howard govt, I would argue that Aust remained progressive (as indicated by many facts), and that the Howard govt merely addressed some of the concerns that are evident about race and culture in all societies. It was not a centre-right party in the mould of One Nation, albiet that it was willing to take up some of the more controversial issues.

"Australia was just one of four OECD nations in 2005 where the gap in income between the richest and poorest regions was less than double" Oh really? So what? One appropriate measure of income equality is the Gini coefficient and Australia has one of the least equal income distributions in the OECD. Another monument to Howard's economic policies.

Mac

Aust's GINI rating only slightly worsened from mid-1990s. Australia also enjoyed one of OECD's highest economic growth rates, albeit fuelled by more and more private debt.

I am not here saying that the Howard govt's record was perfect.

Rather, the article is about the need for many political scientists to get over its hatred of the Howard govt and note all the facts about why a govt got a lot of support in four successive elections. In other words, they need to adequately explain all the factors that helped the Coalition win four successive elections, albeit that it will require much more work.

Ozymandias indeed ocm and academics have every right to be peeved.

2006: Professor D’Arcy Holman of School of Population Health at the University of Western Australia, surveyed 302 academics in 17 institutions across Australia, who reported experiencing or witnessing 142 cases of suppression on health and environmental issues.

In truth the suppression orders were administered, not only by the federal government but also every state (and territory)where affected researchers had their research reports blocked, faced abnormal delays in pursuing or publishing their research, or were directly requested to modify or sanitise their results by a government agency. Some were refused funding.

Separately, "Australia's Right to Know" report found 500 pieces of legislation and at least 1,000 court suppression orders restricting media reporting.

A request for documents about the effect of global warming on the Great Barrier Reef involved 538 hours of "decision making time" at a cost of A$12,718.

A two-year request for information on a politician's travel was abandoned when a newspaper was quoted a fee of A$1.25 million -- a cost related to contacting everyone the politician met.

The report said new anti-terrorism laws in Australia had prevented the media from reporting details of detention warrants and allowed for the detention and interrogation of journalists believed to have information on terrorist activities.

While some of Howard’s policies could be regarded as for the common good, his supreme insult was his eleven year denial on the state of the environment. That's when he lost support.

WA's Liberal Premier, Barney Rubble is also too arrogant to offer an apology whilst plundering his state with great rapidity, offering polluting licences to all and sundry whilst over-ruling EPA environmental impact assessments!

Australia's rampant salinity, soil erosion, mass fish and bird deaths, contaminated and drying rivers and out of control, hazardous industrial emissions tell the story!

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Michael Moore, CEO of phaa and formerly the Health minister of the ACT published an interesting view on the subject of health and research. Most poigant is the fact that research that is not favourable to politicans was supressed.

"Australian academics say their work is being suppressed on what they call a system-wide basis, to stop the publication of unfavourable results, or because the work is controversial and could embarrass a minister."

Another issue on Howard is that the way the CPI was calculated had been changed, it was changed in such away that the new CPI was less than it would have been, had the old calculation remained.

Now it must be remember the Howard jet setted between Sydney and Canberra, costing us taxpayers, millions of dollars in unecessary air travel.

Now in retirement he had still managed to run up a million dollar bill for taxpayers. Meanwhile the cut backs in expenditure for welfare and health, meant that he was able to pay off the national deficit whilst enjoying a millionare lifestyle.

JamesH, has anything changed under the Rudd government? I think not.

David