Janette Howard
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Janette Howard (born 11 July 1944) is the wife of Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Howard was born Janette Parker in Kingsford, a working-class suburb of Sydney. Her father was an engineer with the New South Wales railways. The family later moved to Vaucluse, a wealthy suburb. She was educated at Sydney Girls High School and trained as a teacher. She joined the Liberal Party, and met John Howard at a Liberal Party function. They were married on 4 April 1971, at St Peter's Anglican Church in Watsons Bay.
The Howards have three children, Melanie (born 1974, married Rowan McDonald 2003), Tim (born 1977) and Richard (born 1980). Although both John and Janette Howard were educated at government schools, they have sent their children to private schools.
Howard has adopted a low profile since 1996 as the Prime Minister's wife, but it is widely claimed that she is an influential figure behind the scenes, and that she holds extremely conservative views which have influenced her husband's decisions on some social issues. In 1999 a journalist alleged that Howard had intervened with the Prime Minister concerning an appointment to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Howard issued a rare public statement denying the allegation as "not only wrong but deeply offensive to me."[1]
In 1996 Howard was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent surgery; the type of cancer she has was not revealed to the public until 2006.[2] John Howard said at the time that he would leave politics immediately if it seemed necessary in the interests of his wife's health. Since then Janette Howard has been active in advocating early screening for breast cancer for Australian women.[3]
Howard's public duties include accompanying the Prime Minister on official tours and carrying out the duties of official host at the Prime Minister's official residences, The Lodge in Canberra and Kirribilli House in Sydney. She is also patron of the National Portrait Gallery.
Howard is always at the Prime Minister's side during election campaigns, although she very rarely makes any public comment on political issues. According to John Howard's biographer Pru Goward, however, Janette Howard "lives and breathes" politics. She also devotes time to "nursing" John Howard's electorate of Bennelong, which although a Liberal seat since its creation in 1949 is becoming less reliably Liberal through demographic and boundary changes. She attends many electorate functions which her husband is unable to attend.
In 2004 the Sydney Morning Herald journalist Alan Ramsey, well-known for his hostility to the Howard government, wrote an article highly critical of Janette Howard. He was particularly critical of the decision, which he attributed to her, for the Howards to live at Kirribilli House rather than in The Lodge. He said:
- What Janette Howard's insistence on living in Sydney has cost taxpayers over the years - the cumulative detail has never has been disclosed, despite strenuous Opposition efforts at Senate estimates - would make Richard Butler's obscene $650,000 payout as Tasmania's fallen governor seem like school tuckshop change.[citation needed]
Another journalist, Barry Everingham, wrote at the online news and comment service Crikey in 2004: "Janette stands out as a prime minister's wife - she doesn't do much. No charity work, no visiting sick kids. All her predecessors did something - some more than others - but they did something." [4] Margaret Whitlam, wife of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, has also criticised Howard's lack of commitment to community activities.[5]
