It was a St Patrick’s Day disaster in 2001 for the Howard government. But within five months,its political fortunes were turning.Credit:Louis Enrique Ascui
Cabinet papers from that year,released on January 1 by the National Archives,barely touch on the huge swing in the then government’s electoral support between the days that mark the death of Ireland’s patron saint and Parisians storming the Bastille.
But according to Mr Howard,the events between March 17,when the government lost the safe Queensland seat of Ryan in a 9.6 per cent swing,and July 14,when it managed to hold the Melbourne electorate of Aston at a byelection,set it up for its eventual history-making victory in November.
The large lift in petrol prices had been exacerbated in the public’s mind by the introduction of the goods and services tax in the middle of 2000.
Despite promises the new tax would have no impact on the overall price of fuel,petrol had become more expensive while an Auditor-General’s report had found drivers had been short-changed $3 billion in funding sunk into the nation’s roads.
Mr Howard said the government had not been expecting the “quite capricious” way world oil prices rose through 2000 and into early 2001.
“The most sensitive part of the political anatomy is the hip pocket nerve,and the hip pocket nerve via higher petrol prices had really asserted itself right at the beginning of 2001,” he said. “The public,not just in the bush but all around the place,began to blame the government.”
The government faced a byelection in Ryan after the retirement of then defence minister John Moore.