Almost exactly 30 years ago, John Howard ended Labor’s 13 years of federal government. He sent then prime minister Paul Keating packing – along with his vision of a culturally renovated Australia that reconciled with Indigenous Australians, became a republic, and learned to live comfortably and productively with Asia.
In a new book, former Guardian political reporter Amy Remeikis, now chief political analyst at The Australia Institute, argues many of today’s intractable social problems – housing, failure to Close the Gap, increasingly privatised education – were caused (or made worse) by the Howard government’s policies.
