Oct 19, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 13 segments
Former Australian Ambassador to the US and John Howard's Chief of Staff, Arthur Sinodinos AO, joins Jason de Sousa to discuss Trump, China, AUKUS, Australia's economic future and whether the country…
Arthur SinodinosGuestJason de SousaHostThat aside, though, I think the Howard government, there were two sort of defining moments, I see.
but two economically that I'm always interested in and I particularly want to talk to you about.
One is the GST and sort of the other was work choices, right? So almost term one and two and term four.
On the GST, I think it's sort of prescient now because of what we're seeing in sort of the current government's reform program.
And the background to it was that the Prime Minister felt, as we went into the second half of that first term, that there was a bit of drift in the government.
And then there was a sense of we're dealing with all these issues coming at us from the outside, but where are we actually wanting to take the country? What's the direction beyond what we said in our manifesto? And that's when John Howard reverted to type, as it were, and went back to the sort of economic issues, which had been an animating principle of his in the Fraser government as treasurer and then in opposition during the Hawke-Keating era.
And that was around tax reform, industrial relations reform, privatisation.
That aside, though, I think the Howard government, there were two sort of defining moments, I see.
but two economically that I'm always interested in and I particularly want to talk to you about.
One is the GST and sort of the other was work choices, right? So almost term one and two and term four.
On the GST, I think it's sort of prescient now because of what we're seeing in sort of the current government's reform program.
And the background to it was that the Prime Minister felt, as we went into the second half of that first term, that there was a bit of drift in the government.
And then there was a sense of we're dealing with all these issues coming at us from the outside, but where are we actually wanting to take the country? What's the direction beyond what we said in our manifesto? And that's when John Howard reverted to type, as it were, and went back to the sort of economic issues, which had been an animating principle of his in the Fraser government as treasurer and then in opposition during the Hawke-Keating era.
And that was around tax reform, industrial relations reform, privatisation.
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