Talk:John Howard

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on March 11, 2006 and March 11, 2007.

Graduation

The year of graduation is conventionally defined as the year in which the degree was conferred, not final year, hence 1962 for John Howard, not 1961. Michael Kirby and Murray Gleeson graduated in the same year at Sydney Law School. See also https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/former-justices/kirbyj/kirbyj_gleessu.htm. NB: Southern Hemisphere academic years tend to end in December. Pádraig Coogan (talk) 9:40, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

GST in first term?

The wiki currently suggests that the value added tax came in Howard’s first term, however it was actually his second term. Factual error. 14.200.204.26 (talk) 06:53, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What "wiki"? I can't see that claim in this article, and Goods and services tax (Australia) says "The tax was introduced by the Howard government and commenced on 1 July 2000". HiLo48 (talk) 09:08, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I likewise am not seeing any suggestion of it being introduced in the first term. There is prose which states that Howard began arguing for it in his first term, which is technically correct. TarnishedPath^talk 10:40, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In the first sentence of the third paragraph says that the GST was introduced in the first term breaking an election promise. It was part of the election platform for the 1998 campaign and was in his 2nd term. He did promise no GST in the campaign of 1996 to win government. Thus the sentence is factually incorrect in relation to the timing and matter of a broken promise. ~2026-12541-68 (talk) 13:07, 26 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

New information

I want to include some information about Howard's habit of frequently walking but I'm not quite sure what section the information would be most appropriate to add into. It would be strange if this personal tidbit of information cannot be included as the current prime minister Anthony Albanese has a section on personal information which would likely include something similar to this.^[1] There are additional sources than this one I have included, I just want to send this message now and don't have time to add all the sources.

References

^ "John Howard keeps on walking". The Daily Telegraph. 23 August 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)

Qwerty123M (talk) 23:23, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would be very careful using the Daily Telegraph for anything about Howard. As a news.com outlet it has a notoriously poor reputation as a reliable source on such matters. Telling us that this relates to "the 67-year-old's personal vigour and ability to remain in the top job" hardly reads as objective journalism to me. HiLo48 (talk) 03:42, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If you were looking at including more about Howard's personal life I would split the "Early and personal life" section into "Early life and education" and "Personal life" sections with the latter moved to the end of the article, between "Honours" and "See Also". That said I'm sure you can find other sources than Murdoch for his habit of walking. TarnishedPath^talk 06:39, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "John Howard keeps on walking". The Daily Telegraph. 23 August 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)

[1]