John Robert Hewson AM was born on 28 October 1946 and is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994.
70 Facts About John Hewson
2.
John Hewson led the Liberal-National Coalition to defeat at the 1993 Australian federal election.
3.
John Hewson has attained degrees from the University of Sydney and the University of Regina.
4.
In 1987, John Hewson was elected to the House of Representatives.
5.
John Hewson was appointed to the shadow cabinet in 1988, serving under John Howard and Andrew Peacock.
6.
John Hewson continued on as Liberal leader for another year, losing a leadership spill to Alexander Downer in 1994.
7.
Since then, John Hewson has continued to be a public expert in business and political commentary.
8.
John Hewson resigned his Liberal Party membership in 2019, having been a critic of its policy direction for a number of years, particularly on climate change.
9.
John Hewson was born at Baroda Private Hospital in Carlton, Sydney, New South Wales.
10.
John Hewson was the first of four children born to Eileen Isabella and Donald Hewson.
11.
John Hewson's mother was born in England and arrived in Australia at the age of six.
12.
John Hewson spent his early years in Carlton, where his parents lived with his paternal grandmother and his father's three sisters.
13.
John Hewson attended Carlton Primary School and Beverly Hills North Primary School before matriculating to Kogarah High School, graduating in 1963.
14.
John Hewson subsequently completed a Bachelor of Economics degree at the University of Sydney in 1967.
15.
John Hewson then completed a master's degree at the Regina, Canada campus of the University of Saskatchewan and a second master's and a doctorate in economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
16.
John Hewson was a supporter of some of the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher.
17.
Deaves claims that John Hewson left her because he was under the impression she would not be able to cope with the responsibilities of public life as the wife of a prominent public servant despite her working to support him while he was studying overseas.
18.
John Hewson was elected to the House of Representatives for the affluent Sydney electorate of Wentworth in the 1987 federal election.
19.
John Hewson entered Parliament at a time when there was a leadership vacuum amongst the conservatives.
20.
The Coalition, led by John Hewson Howard, lost the 1987 election, but a majority of Liberal MPs voted to keep him as leader over his predecessor Andrew Peacock.
21.
John Hewson was Howard's advisor when Howard was Treasurer and the two formed a friendship.
22.
However their friendship hit a low point when John Hewson won Liberal preselection for Wentworth.
23.
Government and Opposition MPs who are new to Parliament usually take their place on the backbench but John Hewson believed he was an exception to this due to his personal history with Howard.
24.
John Hewson was therefore disappointed not to be offered a shadow portfolio by Howard.
25.
John Hewson instead sat on the backbench until September 1988 when Howard appointed John Hewson as shadow finance minister.
26.
In May 1989, when Andrew Peacock replaced Howard as Leader after a challenge in which John Hewson voted for Howard, John Hewson became shadow treasurer.
27.
In December 1989, John Hewson claimed that Keating was reluctant to debate with him on the economy.
28.
Reith was then elected deputy leader over David Jull, with John Hewson making Reith Shadow Treasurer.
29.
Previously, John Hewson had endorsed Peacock as his deputy, which created much resentment for him among Howard's supporters.
30.
In 1991, John Hewson spoke at the Australian Council of Social Services, where he stated that the organization was reinforcing the biblical reminder that "the Poor are with us forever" by making welfare provisions larger.
31.
Shortly after gaining the leadership, John Hewson made up ground on the Hawke government in the opinion polls as the Australian economy struggled with the early 1990s recession.
32.
John Hewson was instead forced into a series of circumlocutions about whether the cake would be decorated, have ice cream in it and so on, considered by some as a turning point in the election campaign.
33.
John Hewson announced that if the Coalition lost the 1993 election, he would resign as Liberal Leader.
34.
John Hewson felt he had to remain Leader, believing that Howard failed his Liberal leadership tenure from 1985 to 1989 and would not be a good leader of the party.
35.
John Hewson rejected suggestions like the one made by Senator Michael Baume that he was being used by Andrew Peacock and his supporters to block Howard from returning.
36.
John Hewson defeated Howard in a post-election party leadership challenge in March 1993, which included the nomination of Bruce Reid, Member for Bendigo.
37.
However, John Hewson was not guaranteed to still be Coalition Leader by the time of the next Federal election in early 1996.
38.
In 1993, during Parliamentary question time, John Hewson declared to Paul Keating that the passing of the Mabo act would be "a day of shame" for Australia, stating that an alternative solution should be sought for the Aborigines.
39.
John Hewson claimed his inflammatory remarks were directed at Keating's policy and not extinguishing pastoral leases, but he never explained what better solution he was seeking and never withdrew his offensive remarks.
40.
Hewson gave a speech arguing that hardline Monarchists were an anachronism, which resulted in John Howard storming into his office and shouting that Australia would be a republic over his dead body.
41.
Kelly had previously stated that John Hewson would be the only one resigning.
42.
In May 1994, John Hewson asserted that he was leader of the Liberal party, and was surprised by negative internal party polling on an episode of Lateline, which led to his falling out with Liberal Federal Director Andrew Robb.
43.
John Hewson attempted to silence leadership speculation in general by calling a leadership ballot on 23 May 1994.
44.
However, he lost the vote and the leadership to Alexander Downer, who had undermined John Hewson while acting as Shadow Treasurer.
45.
John Hewson had lost the support of Federal Liberal Party President Tony Staley and Andrew Peacock, who had supported John Hewson four years earlier and against Howard's 1993 leadership challenge.
46.
Staley broke it off with John Hewson after being informed by fellow Liberal party member Ron Walker of difficulties in fundraising following the 1993 election defeat.
47.
Journalist Laurie Oakes claimed that John Hewson viewed Peter Costello as his would-be challenger, unaware of the threat posed by Downer.
48.
Several days later after blaming Andrew Robb for his losing the leadership to Downer, John Hewson was appointed as Shadow Minister for Industry, Commerce, Infrastructure, and Customs in Downer's shadow cabinet, becoming the third former Liberal leader in the group alongside Peacock and Howard.
49.
John Hewson released a statement indicating that he would support either Downer or Howard for leadership, on the condition that he became Shadow Treasurer.
50.
On 28 February 1995, John Hewson announced in the House of Representatives that he would resign as Member for Wentworth, citing his second wife's pregnancy and the fact he was seen as interfering when he spoke up and as holding a seat he should vacate if he remained silent.
51.
John Hewson predicted that under Howard, the Coalition would win the next election as the electorate took its revenge on those who had pursued a "politics of fear and misrepresentation" in 1993.
52.
John Hewson is the only Liberal leader to leave politics without serving as a minister.
53.
In fact unlike Peacock and Howard who led their party since it came into Opposition in 1983, there was never any possibility of John Hewson returning to the leadership.
54.
John Hewson's career stands as one of the shortest of any political party leader in Australia.
55.
John Hewson then became a Professor of Management at Macquarie University, Sydney, and Dean of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in 2002, but resigned within two years.
56.
In 2005, John Hewson was elected to the Touring Car Entrants Group of Australia board as an independent member.
57.
John Hewson left in June 2006 after a dispute with V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane.
58.
John Hewson held the position of chairman of the board of directors for the Elderslie Group, a company whose primary interests were corporate finance and property investments.
59.
John Hewson touted the company to investors at a time when Elderslie was in financial difficulties, eventually leaving the company facing liquidation and large losses.
60.
Since around 2005, John Hewson has been a member of the Trilateral Commission, an alliance of top political and economic leaders from North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
61.
John Hewson is currently Chairman of General Security Australia Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd.
62.
In December 2012, John Hewson was appointed as a non-executive director of Larus Energy, an oil and gas company developing operations in Papua New Guinea.
63.
In July 2006, John Hewson gave an interview to ABC's Four Corners program in which he voiced concern at the growing influence of what he characterised as a "hardline right religious element" in the New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party.
64.
John Hewson has repeatedly appeared in television interviews and on political panels and has been a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review since 2004.
65.
In 2011 John Hewson was among 140 Australian community leaders who pledged support for an Emissions trading scheme, despite the fact the Coalition and its leader Tony Abbott opposed the carbon tax.
66.
In July 2015, John Hewson was critical of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's continuing support for Speaker Bronwyn Bishop during the travel expenses scandal, stating that the cost of that support would be "enormous".
67.
John Hewson has criticised various Liberal Party members, including former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison for their poor record on climate action.
68.
John Hewson publicly campaigned for a price on carbon, a policy introduced by the Gillard Labor government and opposed by the Liberal Party's then leader Tony Abbott, who went on to scrap it as Prime Minister.
69.
In 2000, John Hewson was honored as a Member of the Order of Australia.
70.
Since leaving politics, John Hewson has been involved in a range of non-profit organisations, including the Arthritis Foundation of Australia and KidsXpress, a charity providing expressive therapy for children.