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Proposed refresh of John Anderson Article

The Honourable John Anderson AO
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
In office 20 July 1999 – 6 July 2005
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Tim Fischer
Succeeded by	Mark Vaile
Leader of the National Party of Australia Elections: 2001, 2004
In office 20 July 1999 – 6 July 2005
Deputy	Mark Vaile
Preceded by	Tim Fischer
Succeeded by	Mark Vaile
Minister for Transport and Regional Development
In office 21 October 1998 – 6 July 2005
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Mark Vaile
Succeeded by	Warren Truss
Deputy Leader of the National Party of Australia
In office 23 March 1993 – 20 July 1999
Leader	Tim Fischer
Preceded by	Bruce Lloyd
Succeeded by	Mark Vaile
Minister for Primary Industries and Energy
In office 11 March 1996 – 21 October 1998
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Bob Collins
Succeeded by	Mark Vaile
Member of Parliament for Gwydir
In office 15 April 1989 – 17 October 2007
Preceded by	Ralph Hunt
Succeeded by	Division abolished
Personal details
Born	(1956-11-14) 14 November 1956 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	National Party of Australia
Spouse	Julia Robertson
Children	5
Alma mater	The King's School, Parramatta, University of Sydney

John Anderson AO is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia who returned to public life in a “second coming” as an elder statesman.

Anderson left farming to serve in Parliament, becoming leader of the National Party. He forged a co-operative coalition partnership in government to eliminate net debt, secure an inter-state agreement on water, and lead the world on gun reform. Anderson helped deliver four straight election wins for the coalition government, serving for 19 years in the Australian Federal Parliament, ten years as a Cabinet Minister, six years as Deputy Prime Minister and, at key points, including 9/11, was acting Prime Minister. Childhood experiences forced him to develop “character and fortitude” which enabled him to work with all sides of politics. Even Anderson’s opponents, said Anderson “made a name for himself in this parliament as a man of great heart”, driven by “the love of his family, the love of the land, the love of his political party and the love of Australia.” In his six year partnership with the Liberal Party leader John Howard, Anderson became “one of his most trusted colleagues” as he believed:

"There is no finer human being in public life than John Anderson and the loyalty that he’s displayed towards me, the leadership of his own party, the way in which he represents the interests of country Australia is a source of continued inspiration and help to me.”

Anderson admits that he never had personal passion for politics itself and commentators would later say he was “too much the gentleman farmer with ideas” to ever belong in the National Party. Even so, he was encouraged by a sitting member to run and he felt he would “give things my best shot and not get too worried about whether they work out or not. I will trust God for those things.” As his career began, the National Party was “threatened with extinction” by internal divisions, tensions with the Liberal Party and a “dangerous rearguard assault” by a rising populist leader, Pauline Hanson. In Government, his role in introducing gun control laws to Australia drew great hostility from his voter base. On becoming the leader of the party three years later was told he “would either be the greatest leader the National party ever had or the last.” Once Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Anderson concluded a spread of history-making free trade agreements, including Japan and the United States, on top of a multi-billion national transport infrastructure building program, including a transnational rail link, and the “historic reform” of water rights, in which he formed an agreement between the states. On many occasions Anderson represented Australia’s interests directly with heads of state, such as President Jiang Zemin. As a member of the National Security Committee, Anderson was part of the decision to invoke the ANZUS Treaty for the first time and the approval of the $1 billion aid package to Indonesia following the 2004 Tsunami— which Anderson counts as one of the Coalition's most significant attainments. Anderson’s 2005 decision to retire from the leadership due to health concerns was, for John Howard a “very sad day”.

Eight years later, Anderson started expressing concern at how public debate has “become so stymied” and that the lack of evidence-based discussion has “very dangerous” outcomes. Beginning in 2013, through interviews and op-ed columns, Anderson began urging “serious, full-blooded ­debate” as “I do not believe you can get good public policy out of a bad, or a truncated, or a shut-down debate.” In March 2018 he launched a podcast and video series, Conversations with John Anderson. The first of his many Conversations was with the Canadian psychologist Professor Jordan Peterson but has gone on to include Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Nobel Laureate Professor Michael Levitt, Professor Niall Ferguson, Professor Jonathan Haidt, the political commentator Dave Rubin and Andersons’s one-time political opponent, His Excellency Kim Beazley AC.

1. Early life and education

1.1 Family Background

Anderson’s family have farmed the black earth of the Liverpool Plains for nearly two centuries, “five generations on one side, six generations on the other.” His father and grandfather grew wheat and grazed cattle at the family property in Mullaley. Newstead is named after his great-grandfather’s Inverell sheep station, featured in the large Tom Roberts oil painting The Golden Fleece.

His father Duncan had his pastoral career interrupted by WW2, having enlisted for the 12/24th Light Horse Regiment as an officer when he was 22, in 1938. Following the Dunkirk evacuation he joined “the Magnificent 9th” as a private, having resigned his commission “so he could fight in the ranks.” By 1942 he was an acting sergeant commanding a section of three anti-tank guns with the 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment on the coastal flank of Allied forces facing elements of the Afrika Korps. On the morning of 24 October, a Panzer found range for his crew and, as he attempted to rescue a fellow soldier outside the foxhole, he was hit by shrapnel in the leg. On returning to cover, he was hit again, leaving a deep wound to his side. Against expectations, Duncan Anderson survived. He was sent home to recuperate, however, his “body, and mind, bore deep scars.” He later married “the belle of the District” Beryl Mann, who had “her own scars” having escaped with her son from a violent marriage.

John Anderson was born to Duncan and Beryl in 1956 and he was joined by a sister, Jane, a year later. Anderson has distant memories of his mother and warmly remembers practicing cricket and shooting jam tins with his father.

1.2 Growing Up

1.2.1 Formative losses

When he was three, and his sister Jane 18 months, Anderson’s mother fell ill and soon after died from cancer. Ten years later, while home for Easter holidays, Anderson was batting in a game of cricket with his father, “when he whacked a ball hard and high — unwittingly straight at his younger sister, who was playing with a kitten nearby." She was hit on the back of the neck and died instantly.

For Anderson’s father, these deaths compounded with the wartime trauma and “the sadness became very deep.” Anderson recalls hearing his father reliving his wartime trauma, screaming in the still of night: “Get down! Get down!” He developed a problem with alcohol, of which, John Anderson admits, he became very critical.

As to Anderson himself, he says “My childhood ended that day.” He recalls the home environment as being “immensely depressing” and that “it took me a long time to lift myself out of it.” Anderson would confess that it took him decades before he realised his father “really did love me” as he didn’t foster him out, resolving to raise him and his siblings as a single dad.”

1.2.2 Beginning of faith

Decades after the events, Anderson said these tragedies left him “lacking in confidence, and looking for some answers to life.” In an interview with Jennie Brockie, he said:

“I have to say, it brought me to the point where I wanted answers to the very big questions. And that’s why I’m a believer to this day.”

Anderson said, “I come from a very, very nominal Presbyterian home” a vestige of his Scottish family traditions. However, he “always believed that there was a higher being. It was during year 8 that he experienced the traumatic loss of his sister and heard the comforting message of “a loving God” from the new chaplain at the school. For outside observers at the time, this nascent faith and a stoic, conservative outlook seemed to be shaping him for leadership. When Anderson was in his final year of school, his housemaster wrote:

“John has not let the personal tragedies he has suffered interfere with a splendid job as house monitor. Rather conservative. A committed Christian, I believe. Strong personality and good leadership.”

1.3 Education

As an infant, Anderson was taught by his Aunt Margaret from Blackfriars Correspondence School. At age nine, he was sent to board in Gunnedah where he attended South Gunnedah Primary School. Anderson was then sent to The King's School in Parramatta, boarding at Hake House. However, after his sister’s death Anderson feels he never felt like he regained the confidence to excel he needed to excel in sports like Rugby or target shooting, as, in the words of his biographer Paul Gallagher, “With her died the confidence to believe in himself.”

He gained entry to St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney, thanks to a six-word reference from his headmaster, “Good type. Take him. No games.” He began an Arts-Law degree, but soon dropped both the law and his faith, as “everything was too attractive on the party scene.” However, Anderson became particularly engaged by his lecturer in Modern European History in his final year, Dr Robert E Dreher. Anderson’s adult faith and his conservatism seem to have their roots in his conclusions from that course:

“… the last couple of hundred years is us as a culture finding every excuse, every reason, every rationale we can for rejecting the traditional Christian view of man and this world. The more I looked at it the more I thought that every attempt to do this has been an unmitigated disaster. And the ultimate disaster was Fascism, which was really about the rejection of any higher authority. It was saying, there is no God, we’re not accountable to anybody else, and the only morality is a struggle for power. I thought that if this is where you logically end up when you’ve rejected the traditional Christian view and you’ve tried all the other ‘isms’—humanism, socialism, communism, whateverism—I thought, I can’t go there. For me it just affirmed, at a very deep level, that the truth must lie back where so many of our forefathers believed that it was.”

Anderson’s father had frequently counselled him, “Don’t ever come back on the land. Go and do something else.” After finishing his BA in history, Anderson applied for four jobs and was offered three including one at Elders Stock and Station. Noticing that actually his father “was crushed” at the idea of him returning to the city, Anderson decided “to stay at Newstead to take over the day-to-day management of the property.” During this time Anderson completed a Master of Arts.

2. Early Parliament

2.1 Becoming the candidate

“I was asked to go into politics, I didn’t go looking for it.”

While Anderson had a growing interest in good government and ideas, he had no “personal passion for politics.” Around the time Labor took power from the Liberal-National Party in Canberra, the retiring secretary of the local branch nominated Anderson for that role.

A few weeks later, MP Frank O'Keefe asked Anderson to run for parliament in his seat. With that support, Anderson ran for pre-selection in Lithgow, turning his youth into a strength in his message, he won by a landslide. It turned out to be a false start, as the passing of the Commonwealth Electoral Legislation Amendment Act 1983 meant the seat for which he had won preselection was abolished. Ralph Hunt, the Member for the neighbouring seat of Gwydir and the party’s deputy leader, made up his mind to retire and smooth the road to Anderson taking his seat in a by-election. Anderson won the support of Party members and was appointed as Chair of his local Tambar Springs Branch in 1984, to the Central Council for NSW in 1986 and to its Central Executive from 1987. Anderson won preselection for Gwydir in a close race. The fourth-placed-Tony Windsor resented the result, feeling “conned” by the party leadership, in what would become “blood feud” for the next 20 years.

2.2 Election and re-election

2.2.1 First election —1989 Gwydir by-election

In what would become a feature of his Parliamentary career, the main threat Anderson faced in his first election was from two independents, both former members of the National party. Anderson offered little direct criticism of the pair, except to say they were “on a political continuum beyond where most of us are happy to go.” The Labor Party chose not to field a candidate in the country electorate. Instead, Anderson faced John Uebergang, who would later create the Confederate Action Party, and the anti-immigration Bevan O’Regan, who would later join One Nation. The by-election was held on 15 April 1989. The final vote for John Anderson was 56.0%, which the Nationals leader, Tim Fischer believed was “a strong result.”

2.2.2 First speeches

Anderson took his seat in the House of Representatives in the Parliament of Australia on 2 May 1989. A week after taking his oath, his party leader, Ian Sinclair was replaced and John Howard was likewise deposed by the Liberal Party. The first speech he gave was not a maiden speech, but part of a condolence motion for one of his mentors, Frank O'Keefe, who had died two weeks before. He elegised Frank as “a man who would talk to anyone and listen to anyone... a gentleman and a gentle man. Anderson valued such civility, particularly as O’Keefe was the man who “encouraged me to pursue a political career, despite the fact that I argued the point with him…”

When Anderson rose to give his official maiden speech 17 August 1989 he sensed the moment of history, that this was “a less confident Australia, a nation very unsure of the future” that the country was “in grave economic trouble.” As it turned out, Australia was just a few months from “severe recession.”

While Anderson spoke about strengthening the economy, particularly by reducing interest rates so as to lower the cost of production, Anderson seemed to distance himself from economic rationalists as “Australia is about much more than a narrow economic argument” and that “economic progress” is only good in so far as it brings opportunities for children, better health and better education. He went so far as to say that pursuit of material wellbeing for its own sake is a kind of slavery. Instead of economics, the speech centred on classical conservative virtues and principles, including:

Championing Liberty. Anderson asserts the inherent “dignity” of being human. and that this dignity is best respected via a parliamentary democracy which ensures a “right to choose who will lead.” From this he argues that “the individual should not willingly surrender to the state that which is not rightly the state's.”

Accepting imperfection, that “none of us are above the corrupting influence of power” so the checks and balances of democracy will always be needed. Standing for family. Anderson argued that the “status and prestige of the family as an institution needs to be restored.” An institution without which “Democracy will not long survive.”

Advocating sovereignty. For Anderson, this was the actual point of reducing government debt, “because that is a prerequisite to our continuing control of our national destiny.”

Limiting government. Because “individuals must decide for themselves how best to run their own lives” the government needs to be kept from encroachment into the lives of individuals and families.In his arguments, Anderson drew on Plato, Christ, William Blake, Lord Acton and Karl Marx. In making his case for this last conservative principle — the freedom of individuals and the necessity of limited government — Anderson cited the preeminence of the Christian influence on the Western view of the state: “We have lost sight of the conviction of our forefathers that legitimate government should also be limited government. The English writer and thinker Lord Acton attributed this belief to the influence of the founder of Christianity, who in reply to a trick question advised his listeners to render unto Caesar that which was Caesar’s and to God that which was God’s. Thus was established in mankind’s thinking the idea that limits should be set to the size and nature of government's claims on the lives of ordinary citizens.”

2.2.3 Parliamentary and committee work

As a young backbencher, Anderson faltered in opposition, sometimes pressuring ministers well, such as John Kerin and, at other times being “snookered” by his own questions. Anderson served in several Parliamentary committees before joining the shadow ministry, notably in Transport, Communications and Infrastructure, for which he would later take over the portfolio.

2.3 1990 re-election and shadow ministry

In the Federal Election of 24 March 1990, Anderson met the challenge of a re-assertive Labor Party and a right-wing independent Bevan O’Regan, an anti-immigration advocate who would later run for One Nation. Anderson managed to win his seat a second time albeit with a reduced primary vote of 51.8%, in a swing that went nationwide against the National Party. The leader Charles Blunt had tried to make the party more socially progressive in an appeal to urban voters. Blunt lost his seat in the election, and Anderson was now part of Tim Fischer’s team. Anderson impressed the Coalition leadership and in April 1992 was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, John Howard.

2.4 1993 re-election and deputy leadership

Elections were held in March 1993. Anderson was returned to Parliament with his best electoral performance to date, winning a swing of 8.47%. The National Party duly appointed Anderson the Deputy Leader to Tim Fisher. However, the results for his coalition partners in “the unlosable election” were poor. Having lost the election, the coalition leader, John Hewson stayed on for a year, bringing Anderson into the front benches as the Shadow Minister for Primary Industries. In this role he showed he was capable of landing criticism on his opposite number, Simon Crean on matters such as the government-set wool floor price, which had led to a rotting wool stockpile. For farmers, complaints surrounding the wool crisis became, in the words of one columnist, “barely controlled screams of pain.” Hewson was replaced at first by Alexander Downer and then by John Howard. Both leaders retained Anderson in their shadow cabinet. By 1996, Anderson had been on opposition benches for seven years.

3. Cabinet Ministry

3.1 1996 election

Anderson went into his fourth election with a platform that was popular in the cities and the bush, including establishment of a $1 billion fund “to restore the national estate, including programs to arrest soil degradation.” The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said it was the most important environmental statement ever made by the Coalition. Likewise, when the National and Liberal parties campaigned on the idea of “Asia’s supermarket”, the rural community — many of whom were recovering from drought and bushfire — responded well. By contrast, the sitting Prime Minister, Paul Keating was seen to be fixated on cultural ideas, such as the republic. By the time the election came many Australians had, in the words of one Labor leader, “run out of patience with our approach.” The result on 2 March 1996 saw the incumbent Keating government “not only defeated, but thrashed.”

Anderson reached a high-watermark of 68.51% in the two party preferred vote for his seat of Gwydir, his party gained 2 seats and their coalition partners, the Liberal Party gained 26. On becoming Prime Minister, John Howard had no need from the Nationals to form a majority, however, he retained the coalition partnership and the Nationals were recognised as being able to shape future policy directions.” Howard appointed Anderson to his Cabinet, one of only three members under the age of 40, giving him the portfolio for Primary Industries and Energy. Anderson’s electoral success was well received by the public, like one he described in North Star by the Queensland border, even if they were short-lived:

“I walked in, was introduced, went to the podium, said, “ladies and gentlemen”, and before I could get another word out, 150 people rose to their feet before I said a word and gave me a long and loud standing ovation… It was extraordinary too though just how quickly that fell away. It really was only a month later that I started getting troubled phone calls. And within 12 months or so, the complaints were loud and clear, and my good friends were saying “John, you’re really losing it.”

3.2 Cabinet and razor gang

John Anderson took the oath of allegiance as a Minister in the Howard Government before Governor General Sir William Deane, early on 12 March 1996. That afternoon Anderson took his seat at his first Cabinet meeting “opposite an ashen-faced Prime Minister, wondering what had changed since that morning when he had been full of good cheer.” Howard had been briefed by Treasury officials and found Australia was facing debt in the billions. Anderson was asked to join the five-person Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) with the brief of making radical cuts to government spending, in order “to end the inter-generational theft.” The goal of the “razor gang” was to cut $6 to $8 billion in expenditure and was led by the new treasurer, Peter Costello, a working relationship which soon came under pressure. While defence, welfare and health spending were considered “off limits”, everything else was liable to cuts: “We spent 2 hours debating whether to continue a $90,000 rat-baiting program on Lord Howe Island. That was the level of debate and detail. Grinding and exhausting.”

Conflict arose as Anderson advocated for continued government spending on what he would call “income-generating investments.” Aware that his “commitment to regional priorities” was being actively questioned, Anderson began advocating that three areas needed to be kept from the razor:

1. Agricultural research and development. Other members believed R&D grants were a benefit to farmers that could no longer be justified. Anderson argued this was “ludicrous” as it “can create growth even if they are funded by debt.” Research had helped create 100,000 jobs in the dairy industry.
2. Diesel fuel rebates. Anderson viewed the excise on fuel used to produce food as a hurtful tax on production, in turn slowing the economy, so the rebate for producers should stay.
3. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. The inefficiencies of the service created a financial burden to Australian food exporters — however, that was not the fault of the farmers, and Anderson believed it should be reformed at government cost.

Anderson argued for weeks on end, failing to convince the committee on each point. He remembers thinking, “this is almost obscene. Here I am already just utterly unable to agree with a government I’m part of.” Realising this, Anderson “walked back to his desk, took out a sheet of letterhead and uncapped a red pen” and wrote a letter of resignation. A staffer noticed, alerting Tim Fischer who in turn spoke to John Howard. The cuts on all three items were reversed. AQIS ended up receiving a $45 million reform package and a $76 million boost to run operations. By the August budget Anderson and Fisher announced the Diesel fuel rebate scheme would be retained. Overall the ERC met its goals. In a 2007 radio interview, Anderson said their debt cutting was “saving nearly $9 billion a year now in interest.”

3.3 Massacre and gun reform

Seven weeks into government, Anderson and his colleagues were confronted with the worst mass shooting in Australian history. A lone gunman armed with an automatic rifle killed 35 people at a tourist attraction, many at point blank, and wounded 23 more, in what became known as the Port Arthur Massacre. The tragedy led to “a national outpouring of grief” which, Anderson recalled, “demanded a national response.” This was politically challenging. First because the Commonwealth would need states to cooperate. Second because the idea of gun reform was only popular in metropolitan areas. Amongst farmers there was “anger that they had to forfeit guns that were, until then, legally held, and a feeling of hurt that all owners were demonised because of the actions of a lone killer.” Parliamentarians were known to have received death threats at the time the reforms were suggested. In making the case for gun control, Anderson was not only going against the interests of his own constituents, but of his own farm. A few days after the event, Anderson recalls taking an early morning call from Prime Minister about developing the National Firearms Agreement:

Howard: Your job is to research and establish what farmers legitimately need as tools of trade. What sort of gun do you have on your farm?

Anderson: [silence]

Howard: Are you still there?

Anderson: Well, Prime Minister, I think I’ve got about a dozen of them.

Within 12 days, the Coalition government had passed the National Firearms Agreement, which created a common agreement between the states and territories to ban automatic and semiautomatic weapons and create a national register for all other firearms. In helping regional Australians to accept the change, Tim Fischer and John Anderson “continually met with affected communities” and John Howard paid tribute to them personally as the ones “who took most of the heat.” Howard knew that Anderson and other Nationals had felt "the full brunt of the sense of frustration and disillusionment that many decent rural people felt about the imposition of [those] laws” and that “it was very easy to talk gun control in the cities." Anderson was hurt badly in the next election because of his support for the gun laws, and he admits “it cost me a lot of political skin, and a few friends, but it was the right thing to do.” The collegiate approach to reform would become a hallmark of the leadership style of both Anderson and Howard. Decades after the reforms were made, they were seen as enabling Australia to become “a world leader in the prevention of armed violence” which has not had a mass public shooting since 1996.

3.4 Minister for Primary Industries and Energy

On his first trip, in his first ministry, Anderson upset a superpower. He took a delegation of Australian business leaders to visit Taiwan in September 1996 in his role as primary industries minister, which the CCP Government said contravened the One China policy. When this was followed up by the Cabinet approving a visit of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese announced “there is a price to pay.” In Australia, the pressures facing Australian farmers and graziers were extreme. Anderson recalls it as a time of “massive angst” of crippling drought, particularly in Queensland. More, he could sense their “hope that a good government and able minister who was ‘one of us’ could weave a magic wand and make it alright…” To meet the short term pressure on farmers, the coalition doubled the period for drought support, extra education assistance for remote health. With that Anderson and Howard announced a $515 million Agriculture - Advancing Australia programme for farm industry support. However, the problems facing agriculture were structural and long-term. Anderson intended to bring reform by removing government controls and letting farmers control their own marketing and research corporations. Four years later, analysts said that Anderson’s deregulation “had swept through the wool, wheat and dairy sectors” — privatising the meat and livestock industry too, which meant a reduced politicisation of wool and grain marketing in Australia. By mid 2001 the reforms had combined with a low Australian dollar, good commodity prices, low interest rates created “the best conditions in 20 years in many dryland farming regions.” By 2001-2002 farm incomes were the highest for 20 years. For Anderson, the achievement was about productivity and restored prestige for the agricultural sector, such that “one Australian farmer feeds 600 people.”

3.4.1 Wool reform

On becoming Minister in 1996, Anderson inherited a government-controlled wool industry, where its Australian Wool Corporation (AWC) attempted to set the price of wool. After Russian and Chinese buyers withdrew from wool purchasing at Australian prices, it left the AWC with close to 4 million bales of unsold wool and a debt of around $2 billion Anderson saw that the collapse of the government controlled reserve price scheme meant “the once mighty wool industry was on its knees, smothered under a massive stockpile of unsold wool.” His message to woolgrowers was positive, “I really look forward to a resurgent wool industry built on vision and passion and direction set by the industry itself…”

The first practical step Anderson took was to give wool growers a pay-out of $300 million, drawing down against their equity in the wool stockpile. Many of Anderson’s own National Party members rejected this preferring a [[Pauline Hanson's One Nation|One Nation} policy of freezing sales from the stockpile. So Anderson’s idea was rejected by the Cabinet. The executive director of the Wool Council of Australia, Mr Greg Evans, described the decision as "inexplicable.” Eventually Anderson saw the government woolstock entity become entirely privatised, to become Woolstock Australia. They sold the last bale from the stockpile in August 2001.

3.4.2 Beef and lamb reform

By the mid 90s, Beef and lamb producers had lost confidence in the Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation which sat alongside the Meat Research Corporation. Anderson announced significant restructures of the industry organisations in 1997, which were supported with some reservations by farmers groups, such as NSW Farmers. In 1998, Meat & Livestock Australia was created from the two organisations, with the goal of becoming a less costly, producer-owned service delivery body.” Anderson hoped it would empower graziers and "push control of the industry as far away from government as possible." Industry leaders themselves felt the “bold and significant reforms” were “successfully delivered by John Anderson” though the structure was something of a “frankenstein.” Some critics remained, saying that the decision to give industry full control meant “the lunatics were put in charge of the asylum.” Eight years after the reforms, Australia was established as the world’s largest exporter of mutton and the second largest exporter of lamb, with lamb exports increasing by 29 per cent over that time.

3.4.3 Grain reform

Anderson’s three years in the Primary Industries role were marked by conflict as he encouraged farmers to take control of their own {Market mechanism|market mechanisms]] and to remove government protection.

Australian Wheat Board had once controlled the domestic market to inflate prices paid by Australian consumers but this had been deregulated by the 1989 Wheat Marketing Act. The industry group was still government owned and controlled , a compulsory levy placed on the value of wheat, its loans backed by the government. Anderson formed an industry group from his department, the AWB, and national grower body the Grains Council of Australia to design an entity that was owned and controlled by the growers. Three years of tough negotiations followed, at one point growers were “bitterly disappointed” when they learnt their equity in the new entity — AWB Ltd — would be subject to capital gains tax. Anderson held that growers “will be getting a damn good deal which should be reflected in their share price.” AWB was listed on the ASX in 1999, its monopoly single desk being kept for another five years. The Australian Barley industry went through a similar process under Anderson’s watch, and in 1999 ABB Grain was created from the Australian Barley Board.

3.5 Minister for Transport and Regional Development

By September 1997, Anderson’s reforms in grain, meat and wool were underway. His work with the expenditure review committee meant the budget was heading towards its first surplus in almost a decade. John Howard asked Anderson to take the portfolio for Transport and Regional Development, giving him roles in developing national rail, road and water infrastructure.

Investment in regional transport links, and later enhanced regional services, were not a priority for Anderson’s counterparts from the city. However, John Howard, grateful for the support he’d been given through the gun law reforms, became very supportive. Howard said, “It was a prime example of the Nationals putting the good of the [Coalition (Australia)|Coalition]] ahead of their own political gains. It was one of the reasons why I would become impatient with those Liberals who begrudged some of the concessions I made to the Nationals on policy questions dear to them." In time this would include large projects such as the National Water Initiative. The portfolio expanded after a year to include all service delivery for those in regional and remote Australia. Political analyst, Dennis Shanahan, maintains that:

“ (Anderson's) commitment to national development through infrastructure - road and rail in simple country terms - has been sincere, dogged and prevailed over more sophisticated opposition within Cabinet. His utter commitment to trying to get a national answer to water shortages - not just for farmers but for metropolitan Australians — has been verging on the religious.”

3.6 Strains in the party and coalition

The first Howard Ministry was marked by turmoil, with seven ministers fired or forced to resign in less than a year. However, Howard stood by Anderson strongly. At one point in June 1998, the Prime Minister met with a hostile crowd in Wondai, some of whom had called Anderson “the most unpopular, detested man in Australia.” Howard raised his hands and said: “let me say that I know John Anderson well. He is a very fine and committed Australian I find him a person of complete integrity and decency with which to deal.” The crowd went silent. Tensions had strained the National party, and the Coalition ever since the Joh for Canberra push which had pressured Queensland Nationals to leave the Federal Coalition. This was made worse by the speed with which the gun laws had seen farmers stripped of their rifles, which, even John Howard admitted was a “very tough proposal.” Perhaps just as worrying for farmers, were the rumour that their Diesel Fuel Rebate would be removed. Anderson had hoped that creating certainty about the rebate and the introduction of the Agriculture — Advancing Australia aid packages would calm nerves but he was wrong. He says the party was “slaughtered in Queensland” in the late 90s. While Anderson was leading a trade mission in Italy in September of 1997, the Queensland Grain Growers Association held a conference in Toowoomba in which he was openly criticised. One grower from St George was quoted as saying, “When you’ve got a bad one you cull it!” A motion of “no confidence” in the Minister was carried 120 votes to 2. At this time “rural and regional voters declared their opposition by deserting the Coalition parties for One Nation.”

3.6.1 Re-contesting his leadership

Queensland Nationals were spooked by the results of the June 1998 state election in which their party lost 11 seats and One Nation gained 11. Anderson said, “Farmers were screaming all over the place.” The pressure from the electorate led to a “free-for-all” within the party room, particularly around policies such as the wool stockpile, with rebel MPs publicly undermining Anderson’s commitment to let the market set prices, arguing against the sales “freeze” that One Nation was advocating. The media reported the ensuing coalition Cabinet meeting on this topic as “a punch-up”, where even Tim Fischer and John Howard seemed to support the view of the rebels. Anderson lost the vote and the freeze went ahead. He was reported to “eat a public wedge of humble pie after being rolled in a decision to freeze stockpile sales.” At this point, even Anderson’s supporters said he needed to be “more combative”. The political analyst, Michelle Grattan, saw that:

“The upshot publicly was that Howard was widely seen by the commentators to be engaging in a bit of expedient populism, while Anderson, whose position was known beforehand and whose pro-market policies have made him unpopular in sections of the rural community.'

Anderson himself came to see the problem was his work in Canberra and Tim Fischer’s constant travel meant that country people felt neglected. “Politics abhors a vacuum, and we left one. For that I feel I must accept a fair degree of blame.” On 5 August 1998, Fischer and Anderson made a political move that Grattan would call “bizarre.” At a scheduled party meeting the pair declared their leadership positions open, inviting their critics, particularly Bob Katter and De-Anne Kelly, to see if they had the support to replace them. In a scene Tony Wright described as “almost surreal” Anderson and Fisher then put themselves forward for the positions they had vacated. The party room re-elected them both, unopposed.

3.7 Death of young son

In his political life, by 1998 Anderson was facing heavy criticism from the National Party, with “Farmers were screaming all over the place.” Anderson was also coming under strain in his personal life. He and his wife Julia welcomed their fifth child, Andrew, to their family in January of that year, born with a profound disability. On top of Down’s syndrome, he suffered Hirschsprung's disease, a crippling disorder which affected his ability to both digest food and to breathe normally. There began a six month struggle for life. The family moved from their farm, Newstead, to Canberra so that Anderson, Julia, her parents and other supporters could be with him at Woden Valley Hospital. The toddler endured a complex series of operations and recovery but by August it was clear the boy was dying. On the day that Anderson faced his critics in the party room, he had learnt from the team that there was no point to any further surgery. Colleagues later realised that Anderson had “walked into that meeting, basically having just found out that his little fellow was coming home to die. That takes courage.” When Anderson was granted compassionate leave by John Howard, members of the press gallery discovered the story. Journalist Paul Davey wrote of how many felt sobered by the news:

“Today anyone who knows the National Party’s Deputy Leader, Mr John Anderson, is amazed at his resilience through the long illness and death of his son, Andrew…. He has never asked for sympathy and, until Andrew’s death, some colleagues had no idea at all what he’d be going through….”

In his immediate family, Anderson had lost his mother when he was three, his sister when he was 14, his father Duncan when he was 35. Now, at the age of 41, he had lost his youngest son. His eulogy for Andrew is striking, not for its loss, but for its admiration:

“He — quite helpless and needing everything done for him — revealed much to us about our own failings, weaknesses and inadequacies… Andrew taught me (who, from time to time, railed against God for the burden I felt he was adding to an already burdened life) that I had a lot to learn about loving and accepting others without reservation. That is what God offers us, even though we are not nearly as attractive as we might like to think we are. I started to realise these truths as I considered if God hates selfishness and vanity and greed, who had the problem — Andrew or me? And what of the marks of character that he did reveal — his courage, his warmth, his tolerance in the face of awful suffering?”

3.8 1998 Australian federal election

During 1998, Anderson met with Tim Fischer and former minister John Sharp for lunch and were surprised to learn from each other that they all intended to retire at that forthcoming election. All three of them felt it was a good idea for all of them to retire at the same time as it did not give a positive image to the party which is battling against perceptions that it does not have a certain future. In the end only Sharp retired, with Fischer and Anderson choosing to run for their seats again, though Fischer resigned the leadership of the party nine months later.

The election, held on 3 October 1998, was, in John Howard words, “very scary for the National party and very difficult for Tim and John and I felt for both of them.” His strong support for laws that disarmed farmers of legally owned rifles and his pro-market views meant Anderson was “vulnerable to being painted in the bush as unsympathetic to battling farmers. Anderson faced two Independents, Labor and a surging “One Nation juggernaut” — which forced a 16.18% swing against him. With a primary vote of 46.14%. Anderson was elected to be the Member for Gwydir for the fifth time — thanks to preferences, the only time he needed them.

5. Deputy Prime Minister (1999-2005)

Tim Fischer surprised the press gallery when he resigned his leadership of the National Party though Anderson expected it. Anderson was made leader of the party; at age 43, its youngest ever. Following the undertaking given on election night speech in 1996 — John Howard installed the new leader as Deputy Leader of the Government on 20 July 1999. This began a six-year leadership pairing in which, some said, the Nationals regained their position as “the tail that wags the Coalition dog.”

Anderson also kept his responsibilities in Transport and Regional Development now extended to the delivery of government services, such as health, to regional and remote centres. Added to this was membership of the National Security Committee. However, commentators at the time saw “Mending fences as a first-order issue.” This applied to healing divisions within the party and with coalition partners. Anderson’s biographer, Paul Gallagher believed that an essential part to the “fence-mending operation was one important woman.” By hiring Wendy Armstrong as chief of staff, Anderson built new connections with Queensland Nationals. Just as significant was Anderson’s ‘open house lunch’ every Thursday. This solved the problem by doing “what John did best, to make friends at close quarter.” It won back the confidence of the Queensland MPs and Senator, which they regarded as his “finest achievement in office” As Anderson became more collegial, he seemed to become more assertive. A long time critic, and one-time challenger to his job, De-Anne Kelly praised Anderson’s leadership, that he had pulled on his ‘Black Jack McEwen boots.’ When Minister Nick Minchin suggested the Liberal and National Parties do "the right thing" and merge, staffers describe him, in their words, as being "f***ing furious", calling Prime Minister John Howard in Beijing to demand that Minchin be gagged.” Minchin didn’t speak on the matter again. For the most part, however, he played the peacemaker within coalition ranks. Anderson often acted as “a go-between when things got rough between Mr Howard and Peter Costello over leadership tensions”

5.1 Acting Prime Minister of Australia

Anderson became Acting Prime Minister on occasions when the Prime Minister was away on official business. Prime Minister Howard happened to be in the United States when it was attacked by terrorists on 9/11 and Anderson, as Acting PM activated defence arrangements including the 01:30 am AEST special meeting chaired by the Protective Security Coordinator involving the Departments of Attorney General, Defence and ASIO. Protection for US dignitaries and interests were activated at this time. Following his return to Australia, John Howard and John Anderson made a joint statement invoking Article VI of the ANZUS treaty. It was the first only time any member of the alliance has done so. Australia committed its first military personnel to Afghanistan in October of that year.

5.2 Minister for Transport and Regional Services

In its first term, the Howard Government had cut $150 million and 220 bureaucratic jobs from the regional development portfolio. Anderson seems to have regretted some of his hardline views about small government, particularly when looking at what Australians in the bush were expected to do without:

“I think the lack of services, the lack of access to the things that most urban Australians take for granted... In rural and regional Australia when we got into government and frankly for the first two or three years of our government, we didn't do enough about it, was outrageous. I believe it was socially inequitable, and I believe we had to do something about it and we did.”

Anderson gained services as part of his new portfolio and had Senator Ian McDonald help him as assistant minister. For Anderson, services meant mobile phone services, better roads “so that people could actually just do some basic things like get their kids to school on a wet day” and putting post offices and banks back. Medicare access points, regional education and health services and rural transaction centres were added to new regional infrastructure, including internet services. By 2003-04, government assistance to the farm sector was worth $1.3 billion.

5.3 Airline crisis

The terror attacks immediately impacted global air travel. “The airline industry was in disarray, with planes empty amid widespread cancellations. Nobody wanted to fly.” However, Australia’s second airline, Ansett Australia, had already begun to collapse. The consequences for Australia were vast, from stranded passengers overseas to staff being laid off without any entitlements. While privately owned, managing the crisis landed on Anderson’s desk. He kept his free-market principles, “The government at the time, and me foremost among them, took the decision that it was in everyone’s longer term interest to allow market forces to prevail.” Ansett was allowed to fail because Anderson didn't believe it was salvageable. However, Anderson did take responsibility to fund payment of outstanding wages, leave and industry-standard redundancies for the 15,000 workers. Funding came from a special $10 levy on airline tickets. The end of the airline meant Australia had only one major carrier, and, perhaps because of this, Anderson, became known in Canberra as the Minister for Qantas.” In one of the few anti-free-market decisions he made, Anderson prevented Singapore Airlines from gaining access to the lucrative route between the East Coast of Australia and the West Coast of the United States, allowing Qantas to dominate.

5.4 2001 re-election

Anderson looked like he might face his old rival Tony Windsor in the months before the 2001 Federal Election. Anderson moved his family back to Newstead to better connect with constituents. In the end, Anderson’s new threat was a former diplomat, Bruce Haig, who ran as an independent. Haig took a condescending attitude towards the sitting member, seeing his lack of killer instinct as a fatal flaw: “I feel sorry for John Anderson. I mean, it's a difficult job. And he's obviously not cut out for it. To get into something like national politics I think you've got to have some ideas, you've got to be able to enjoy the cut and thrust.” Come election day, it was another “sweeping victory” both for Anderson — who enjoyed a 11.15% swing — and for the coalition. But while the Liberal Party gained seats, the National Party lost three seats, two of them to independent MPs.

5.2.1 Water reform

In early 2000, drought had hit and Anderson met with 2,000 protestors in Gunnedah, furious at how the State government had made cuts of up to 80% for their water entitlements. While it was a state matter, Anderson could see the Minister, Richard Amery, “didn’t understand a thing.” It struck him that “All these people have done is use the licences given to them in good faith by governments… They have a … legal right to water.” So began a five-year process of working with local, state and federal governments to ensure that all Australians received just terms with regards to water. To Anderson, it was clear that ”the Commonwealth would have to pay fair and just compensation. “I felt very deeply that I had to go into bat for them.” The resulting National Water Commission of 2004 would be an “historic reform” that managed to bring cooperation from all states involved. Water users would gain ongoing access entitlements for a share of the water available for use, rather than fixed-term entitlements with no guarantee of renewal. Even the Wentworth Group of Scientists stated that “John Anderson has provided real leadership and worked with the states to produce this agreement.

5.2.2 Transport Reform

“The repayment of $70 billion in public debt has freed up significant funds for spending on infrastructure and other government priorities.” In the early 2000s, Anderson began arguing for expansive investment in transport infrastructure, as he believes such “investment by the Commonwealth produces money” and that, without it, national productivity will be constrained. His first priority for rail was to create governance structures which would allow for national planning. Anderson created the Australian Rail Track Corporation, a Commonwealth body set up to own or hold long-term leases over almost the entire rail network linking Australia's five biggest cities.” He began advocating for high-performance rail line connecting Melbourne to Brisbane. Then began the planning process. The release of the AusLink White Paper in 2004 recommended an upgrade of Australia’s east coast road and rail systems and a $3.6 billion increase in the federal government's land transport funding. This was strongly opposed by senior bureaucrats such as Ken Henry. Along with this outlay came the Roads to Recovery program, which directly funded Australia's 720 councils with $1.2 billion over four and a half years for local roads.

5.3 2004 re-election

By 2003, Anderson was discussing retirement from Parliament, feeling the pressure of needing On 9 October 2004, Anderson won his seventh straight election for the seat of Gwydir. It turned out to be the last election Anderson would contend, and the last election to be held for the seat, as it was abolished by the AEC in its 2006 redistribution. Though threatened again by One Nation and the independent Bruce Haigh, both lost ground to Anderson. A second Independent, Michael Anderson made the curious argument that “John Anderson has never had to do it hard. He doesn't understand the hardships being faced by the little people." On the day, John Anderson enjoyed his strongest ever two-party preferred result of 68.39%.

5.3.1 Reforms

Anderson continued in his portfolio for Transport and Regional Services through to 2005. After the calamity of Ansett, Anderson oversaw a period of consolidation. This included airspace reform in 2004. It was controversial as it let light aircraft and jets share airspace — and may have led to a near miss at Launceston. Even so, by 2005 Airservices Australia had been recognised as the best provider of air traffic control services in the world. The skies were busy by 2005 — Australia reached a landmark high for travel, helped by the emergence of the low cost airline Virgin Blue and a strong dollar. A Senate committee created some embarrassment for the Deputy Prime Minister when it found the position of inspector of transport security has been vacant for three months. However, Anderson had more to be proud of when looking at his record with sea ports:

When we took office, Australia's five major ports handled 15.9 containers per hour. We set a target 25 containers per hour . . . In the December quarter last year, Australia's ports handled 27.1 containers per hour. I believe it is now time for the Australian government to build on the success of our waterfront reforms and extend AusLink to include the . . . planning and regulation of major export ports.

In May 2005, Anderson announced plans for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to assume regulation for ports — though they may still be leased and operated by private operators.

5.3.2 Accusations of corruption

On 17 November 2004, speaking in the House of Representatives, Tony Windsor accused John Anderson of offering him — via a businessman Greg Maguire with whom he’d met in Tamworth 18 May — of a diplomatic or trade posting if Windsor would surrender his seat. The statement was defamatory, but it was made under Parliamentary privilege. Anderson repudiated the claims, producing a flight manifest that showed he’d been in Queensland on that day and that, more to the point “I do not engage in corrupt behaviour.” Windsor later admitted that Maguire had never mentioned Anderson’s name in connection with an offer of any future role. A subsequent Senate inquiry, dominated by opposition and independent Senators, found that Anderson had no case to answer. Commentators wrote that “nothing was proven except that the two men really don’t get on” Certainly, the furore left both sides deeply embittered” Costello said “it hurt him enormously”

5.3.3 Boxing Day Tsunami

On the morning of Boxing Day 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake shook an undersea fault in the Indian Ocean launching a devastating tsunami waves of up to 30 metres, killing 227,898 people, most of whom were Indonesian. Anderson and Howard discussed how Australia could support its northern neighbour. They conceived the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development, which would be a billion-dollar aid and assistance package Australian volunteers to join the aid effort, the “shared vision for the tsunami aid effort was an almost miraculous convergence of goodwill.” Anderson seemed to be as proud of Australia’s ability to contribute as he was with the contribution itself:

“Peter Costello would make the point that - and he’s absolutely right - that it’s very significant that that through careful economic management, Australia can do this… we did not see it from the United Nations. We did not see it from the European Union.”

Anderson also recommended that the government fund free fares for volunteers, having been inspired by a Scripture Union-sponsored meeting he’d attended a few months before. Anderson said it “one of the most worthwhile things I’ve ever been involved with.”

5.3.4 Return to the backbench

On the last sitting day of Parliament before the winter recess of 2005, John Anderson announced that “after carefully weighing the interests of my party, my family and my health, I've decided that the time has arrived for me to step down as leader.” In that moment, Anderson “resigned as Australia's deputy prime minister, robbing John Howard, the country's leader, of one of his most trusted. In the end it was prostatitis, a “stress-related prostate condition” described in medical literature as a"headache of the pelvis." He’d realised he needed to stop his political career when he found it took three weeks to recover from a jet lag in Feb 2005. Anderson knew “if I returned to an ordinary lifestyle it would disappear and it did.” He had often expressed his frustration at having to spend so much time away from his bush roots. "To paraphrase Burns, my heart is not here, my heart is out there." Thinking of his replacement, Mark Vaile, Anderson wanted “to give it away in time for the ‘04 elections and to give Mark plenty of time.” The transition was “an orderly bowing out to a patient deputy and long-time heir apparent.” It was remarkable for its “contrast to the year’s Liberal Party leadership tensions, a lesson in ideal transitions.”

Anderson's day of Parliament as an MP was 20 September 2007. He thought then that ­“Australia was in a surprisingly good place”.Anderson said he anticipated, “a lot of time on the land.”

5.3.5 Parliamentary legacy

As Anderson stepped back from leadership, one interviewer blankly said that both Tim Fischer and Mark Vaile are “much more political animals, it could be said, than you are.” Anderson did not disagree. He gave himself a modest report: “We were, I think, moderately successful government.” Underselling himself marked Anderson’s career. One Parliamentary colleague, Helen Dickie said other people “recognised his leadership qualities more than he did.” Even the opposition leader, Kim Beazley would recognise that Anderson had “made a name for himself in this parliament as a man of great heart.” While successful at elections, his views were sometimes “not popular” in the bush because he sometimes pursued policies that were “very much against the interests of some of my constituents” notably, gun reform and the sale of Telstra. He was constantly criticised in the parliament, but he saw off “bribery allegations, weathered accusations about the rorting of regional grants…” After all the partisan accusations, he was “esteemed by both sides of parliament as the ‘Mr Clean’ of political life”“with some major portfolio achievements” It was said, “he leaves the political sage with hardly an enemy.” A local community leader from Gunnedah said, “He is the most honourable and trusted man and politician you could get and even his detractors know that." Yet he never managed to win the approval of his rival Tony Windsor, who found nothing good to say about Anderson when he retired: “he’s presided over a decline in the population of country Australia and decline in many of our industries, and I’m afraid that’s how I’ll remember him”

• Fiscal responsibility. Anderson’s work with the five-person Expenditure Review Committee meant that “by 2007, the $96 billion in debt the Howard government had inherited in 1996 was entirely paid down and the budget was in surplus to the tune of $20 billion.” This corresponded with steady growth in national income. By 2006 treasury secretary Ken Henry reported that Australia’s GDP per person had surpassed all G7 countries except the United States.”
• Infrastructure investment. Anderson also advocated strongly for infrastructure spending by government. He considered the National Water Initiative and the Government's land transport plan, AusLink, were two of his greatest achievements Tim Fischer said Anderson would be remembered for his part in the Adelaide to Darwin rail link. Industry de-regulation. As early as 1998, Anderson’s de-regulation of wool, grain, meat and livestock were regarded as major achievements by the financial press. Anderson would later remove Commonwealth or state regulation market forces could operate with a freer hand in the ports and airlines.
• Persistence of the National Party. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party directly threatened the National Party, starting with John Anderson’s own seat. He won there and managed to win back voters to the traditional conservative party.Some nationals believed that Anderson’s ability to heal the internal party rifts to be his greatest achievement. Though there were lingering criticisms that the party had a lack of distinctiveness.”
• Collegial decision-making. Anderson resolved to work well with his coalition partners, saying “we stuck together like glue.” Conflict was civil: “when I was deputy prime minister working with John Howard, if he thought what I wanted to do for rural Australia was in any way reasonable, he supported me. There was no need to have some public brawl.” It meant assuming good faith in the perons opposite because the “overwhelming bulk of people who come into this place, regardless of their political persuasions, are trying to make a difference.”
• Character. When Anderson was asked if he found it hard to uphold his Christian beliefs he replied, “I think I probably failed far more times than I succeeded.” Even so, within the Parliament he was known for “good-heartedness" (as Kim Beazley put it) for "steadfast character and principal" (as Howard put it) for "deep and vibrant faith" (as Peter Costello put it)” and for being “one of the most honourable people I have ever come across in politics, or indeed out of politics” (as Alexander Downer put it). Many saw these virtues as a seriousness, or melancholy “like a character out of a Patrick White novel.” Either way, it seems Anderson’s character gave him great success in politics, “I think that’s probably a legacy of John’s leadership… he said integrity is integral to trust. And trust is integral to a functioning democracy.”
  

John Anderson public life timeline

6.1 Conversations with John Anderson

Beginning in March 2018, John Anderson began a series of video podcast conversations with thinkers and leaders who, he believes, are not being heard by mainstream media. who has become, to some commentators, “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world.”

The first episode was a long-form interview with the then-emerging public intellectual, Jordan Peterson.

Episode Listing

Date of release	Guest	Topic	Source
27 March 2018	Jordan Peterson	12 Rules for Life	John Anderson
15 April 2018	Frank Furedi	Brexit, education, elites	John Anderson
30 April 2018	John Howard	Leadership and challenges	John Anderson
23 May 2018	Peter Baldwin	How politics on the Left has changed	John Anderson
23 May 2018	Tony Abbott	Politics, policy, freedoms	John Anderson
5 June 2018	Jacinta Nampijinpa Price	Welfare of Indigenous Australians	John Anderson
11 June 2018	Stuart Piggin	Christianity and Australia's history	John Anderson
14 June 2018	Niall Ferguson	Western civilisation and totalitarianism	John Anderson
19 June 2018	Jordan Peterson	Dr Peterson's work and lectures	John Anderson
28 June 2018	Jonathan Haidt	Ethical Leadership	John Anderson
5 July 2018	Tom Simpson	Social trust, elitist politics and Brexit	John Anderson
12 July 2018	Eric Metaxas	Abolition of slavery, human dignity, culture wars	John Anderson
24 July 2018	Tony Shepard	Australian and international economy	John Anderson
14 August 2018	Jenny Stanger	Modern slavery	John Anderson
10 September 2018	Melanie Phillips	Political and personal liberty	John Anderson
26 October 2018	Kim Beazley	Political leadership, national defence, US	John Anderson
12 November 2018	Kevin Donnelly	Influence of the cultural-left in education today	John Anderson
26 November 2018	Greg Sheridan	Religion, media, politics	John Anderson
7 December 2018	Jennifer Oriel	Politics, universities, religious freedom	John Anderson
17 December 2018	Peter Costello	Economy, government debt, political intentions	John Anderson
27 December 2018	Os Guinness	Judeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilisation	John Anderson
14 January 2019	Peter Hitchens	Breakdown in trust, Soviet Union, conservatism	John Anderson
28 January 2019	Andrew Robertson	Australia's defence policy	John Anderson
4 February 2019	Gavin Ashenden	Democratic freedom	John Anderson
23 February 2019	Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin	Contemporary challenges	John Anderson
12 March 2019	Niall Ferguson	Trump, Brexit, immigration, populism, socialism	John Anderson
10 April 2019	Jim Molan	Defence policy, geo-political climate	John Anderson
22 May 2019	Tim Montgomerie	Nationalism, identity politics, history	John Anderson
13 June 2019	Melinda Tankard Reist	The pornification of our culture	John Anderson
25 June 2019	Helen Pluckrose	Grievance studies affair	John Anderson
8 July 2019	Peter Jennings	Australia's regional defence strategy	John Anderson
24 July 2019	Peter Hitchens	Our contemporary condition	John Anderson
8 August 2019	Jonathan Haidt	The Coddling of the American Mind	John Anderson
6 September 2019	David Goodhart	The Road to Somewhere, Brexit	John Anderson
17 October 2019	Caroline Cox	Aid, humanitarian work	John Anderson
30 October 2019	Jonathan Sacks	Freedom, morality, religion	John Anderson
15 November 2019	Niall Ferguson	China, USA, Trump, Brexit	John Anderson
30 October 2019	Dave Rubin	Politics, culture	John Anderson
13 December 2019	Melanie Phillips	Western freedoms, antisemitism, contemporary youth	John Anderson
10 January 2020	Douglas Murray	The Madness of Crowds	John Anderson
23 January 2020	Andrew Stone	Economic reform for the Australian economy	John Anderson
7 February 2020	Tim Dixon	Building united societies	John Anderson
21 February 2020	Bjorn Lomborg	Climate change policy	John Anderson
6 March 2020	Claire Lehmann	Quillette, freedom of thought and expression	John Anderson
26 March 2020	Douglas Murray	COVID-19 lockdown	John Anderson
3 April 2020	Warren Farrell	The Boy Crisis	John Anderson
7 April 2020	Konstantin Kisin	Free Speech, Comedy, Woke Culture	John Anderson
9 April 2020	Peter Hitchens	COVID-19 lockdown	John Anderson
24 April 2020	Niall Ferguson	Response to COVID-19	John Anderson
14 May 2020	Ian Macfarlane	The Australian economy	John Anderson
19 May 2020	Kenneth Barnes	Redeeming Capitalism	John Anderson
2 June 2020	Michael Levitt	Response to COVID-19	John Anderson
4 June 2020	Eric Metaxas	Reason, Riots, Liberty	John Anderson
11 June 2020	Warren Farrell	Family dynamics in lockdown	John Anderson
19 June 2020	Stephen Hicks	Postmodernism, Nazism	John Anderson
15 July 2020	Geoffrey Blainey	The importance of understanding history	John Anderson
22 July 2020	Coleman Hughes	Black Lives Matter	John Anderson
3 August 2020	Victor Davis Hanson	Trump, China, Black Lives Matter	John Anderson