The Howard Decade

The WSJ hails the decade of John Howard's tenure as Australian PM, which started on March 2, 1996. The praise is highly deserved for this principled leader of the nation that has become our best ally. Some quick excerpts because the link is subscriber only:

Like the Gipper in the U.S., Mr. Howard has fundamentally reshaped Australian society through economic reform. When elected in March 1996, he pledged lower taxes, privatization initiatives and labor market change. His government wouldn't "be a pale imitation" of the Labor leadership it replaced, the plain-talking Aussie vowed. What an understatement. To date, he's followed through on every one of those promises.

As a result, the Lucky Country is, well, luckier today than it's ever been in its history. Over Mr. Howard's tenure, Australia experienced an enormously stable and robust economic boom. The Sydney stock market's capitalization has swung skywards. The central bank was granted independence and promptly brought average inflation down to around 2.5% over the last 10 years. Employment picked up mightily. Australians now feel a renewed confidence in their nation that strongly echoes that of America's vibes under Mr. Reagan.

All of this wealth creation has come from common sense observations: if you give businesses the freedom to make decisions about wages, prices and employment, they'll respond rationally. If you encourage healthy competition among firms, only the best will prosper. If you make your citizens shareholders, they'll have a personal stake in companies' success, and productivity will soar. Consider: More Australians today own stock than are members of labor unions, thanks to Mr. Howard's reforms. That's what we'd call an ownership society . . .

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Like Mr. Reagan, the Prime Minister has also forged a solid, realist internationalist foreign policy, built on the country's long-time alliance with free nations like the U.K. and the U.S. He's also -- importantly -- forged new friendships in Asia, as evidenced by free trade agreements his administration has inked, and Australia's participation in regional political and economic forums.

That's not a significant change from prior Australian administrations, all of whom proved solid allies of free nations. But what Australia has witnessed under Mr. Howard is an escape from its Vietnam-era hang-ups. . .

Happy 10th Anniversary to the Aussie Gipper.