John Stone (Australian politician)

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John Stone (born 1929) is a former Australian politician. He served as head of Treasury between between 1979-1984, [1] and as a member of the National Party in the Australian Senate.

After gaining First Class Honours in Mathematical Physics for his B.Sc. degree and representing Western Australia (Under 21) at hockey, Stone was selected as the Rhodes Scholar from Western Australia for 1951.

At Oxford he was awarded First Class Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (P.P.E.) and won the James Webb Medley Prize for Economics before joining the Australian Treasury in 1954.

Stone rose within the Public Service to become Secretary to the Treasury under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. He penned a severe critique of Fraser's economic policies which was used against the Liberal party once the Australian Labor Party won the 1983 Federal election. Stone retired from the Treasury in 1984, after the election of the Hawke-Keating government, some of whose economic policies he supported.

Following the release of the Coalition's One Australia immigration policy in 1988, John Stone, as Shadow Finance Minister said:

"Asian immigration has to be slowed. It's no use dancing around the bushes" [2]

Despite his economic rationalist views, he initially opposed floating the currency and introducing a consumption tax; indeed he has repeatedly criticised the GST (and Australian Treasurer Peter Costello) in print.

An informal advisor to Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Stone stood for election to the Senate from Queensland as a member of the National Party, and served for three years (1987-90).

Since retiring from the Senate Stone has been a critic of multiculturalism and a supporter of the Samuel Griffith Society, which he helped found. He formerly had a column, on economics and politics, in the Australian Financial Review. Most recently Stone has been critical of the Howard Government for its efforts at eroding the power of the states within the Australian federal system, regarding this as a departure from long-standing Liberal/National coalition "states' rights" ideology.

In its March 2008 issue Quadrant Magazine published an article in which Stone argued that John Howard had been Australia's greatest Prime Minister.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australia's Prime Ministers. National Archives of Australia. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
  2. ^ Peter, Mares (2002). Borderline: Australia's Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the Tampa. UNSW Press, 113. ISBN 0868407895. 
  3. ^ Quadrant March 2008 edition. Quadrant Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.

[edit] External links

  • bio
  • Time to Stop the Dreaming An article by John Stone in Quadrant Magazine, April 2008, in which he says that "traditional Aboriginal culture is a violent culture".