How would you rate the Howard Prime Ministership?

[Robespierre's Jaw]

How would you rate the Prime Ministership of Australia's 25th Prime Minister, John Winston Howard?

[Beet]

No one can question that the government ran an excellent fiscal policy, but I think Howard partially got lucky by coming into power in 1996- the world economy started taking off around this time and as economies generally tend to move together it was very likely that Australia would see strong growth. The Australian economy did avoid the (barely a) recession of 2001. The Asian crisis of 1997 was more than made up for by accelerated growth in China and the United States.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I find myself emotionally unable to give Howard anything other than the lowest mark possible, even if he was slightly better than that.

[Hash]

2/10, but on second thought 1/10 is better

[Colin]

8/10 actually. I have quite a high opinion of Prime Minister Howard as he was a fine politician. He could be duplicitous at times and often pandered to whomever he needed to stay in power but kept the economy stable and led the country through, I believe, over a decade of straight growth. While I deplore some of his singular actions, his stance on refugees during the 2001 campaign was quite repugnant in my opinion, his overall term as PM was quite pragmatic and made a few wise leadership decisions throughout his tenure.

[Sensei]

5-10

[tik 🪀✨]

I give him credit despite not being able to properly appreciate his domestic policies, but on the international stage I found him to be a buffoon. And his immigration reforms are generally terrible, which is a very defining characteristic I have of him. 3/10

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Those of you who give Howard 1/10 prove why this board is at a loss for useful debate (or any debate) in recent months, you always default to the lowest possible option then proceed to drag said person through hell over (usually) just Iraq.

People like Warren Harding and Steve McClaren deserve 1's, try to have real conversation over things and not be a furious idiot all the time.

[Platypus]

2/10. Whilst the country hasn't exactly gone to hell over the last decade, most of the positives associated with the government are associated with Peter Costello. On foreign policy, the government was bad but Howard individually worse; economics the government was good and Howard neutral; on domestic and social policies Howard was atrocious and his government not much better.

I'm not expecting a great result for Rudd, either; but Howard has not been a good Prime Minister, who lead an average government. I am very glad to see the end of him.