Yes, you are correct - GST first came up in the Whitlam era - knocked back by Hawke, tried by Hewson and finally got a run with Howard - and, a good thing. Labor idea, but, they couldn't sell it.
No argument on Patrick's -it would have been interesting to see if Hawke and Keating would have been able to make it work.
Gun controls -- yes, a given - but, really, any government in Oz should have been able to swing it after Port Arthur - but, hat off to Howard.
What annoys the hell out of me is that eg. the Howard years - the guy could have done so much - but, he did diddly squat - he saved money, gave some tax cuts to mates, brought some cheap labor votes by upping the baby bonus - and, that was that -
where were the Ports, the dams and bridges and whatever else? ----------- Research and education - the great cutting began - wow - when it needed to go the other way.
And, the unforgivable thing to me (without the wrong war thing) - is that Howard of all people was one of the very very very few who actually knew what Australia needed to go into a high tech future - he discussed it with Greenspan (from memory) - who was so impressed with Howards knowledge of what was needed that he wrote it in speeches and a book (from memory).
But, what did John Howard do -------- he did the very opposite of what he KNEW had to be done - and, why did he do the opposite? - to maintain power - he believed to do what had to be done, he couldn't sell - so, he did exactly what would buy the boneheads votes - the very opposite of what the Nation needed - in my book - unforgivable.
IMO - we will never recover from that - IMO - we are doomed from that very part of history - because it's been downhill all the way from then and it's not showing any sign of slowing up - it's indeed, where I think he rot set in for not only Australia - but, for the Liberal party as well.
It's only my opinion of course - but, the results are what we see now, and, they are not pretty.
