John Stone (Australian politician)

John Stone
Senator for Queensland
In office 11 July 1987 – 1 March 1990
Succeeded by	Bill O'Chee
Secretary of the Department of the Treasury
In office 8 January 1979 – 14 September 1984
Personal details
Born	(1929-01-31) 31 January 1929
Nationality	Australian
Political party	National Party of Australia
Alma mater	Oxford University
Occupation	Public servant

John Owen Stone (born 31 January 1929) is a former Australian politician and public servant. He served as Secretary to the Treasury between 1979 and 1984,^[1] and as a Senator for Queensland representing the National Party from 1987 to 1990.

Biography

John Stone was born on 31 January 1929 in Perth, Western Australia.^[2] After gaining First Class Honours in Mathematical Physics for his Bachelor of Science degree and representing Western Australia (under 21) at hockey, he was selected as the Rhodes Scholar from Western Australia for 1951.^[3]

At Oxford he was awarded First Class Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and won the James Webb Medley Prize for Economics. Then, in 1954, he returned to Australia and joined the Treasury.

Stone rose within the Treasury department to become Secretary during the reign of 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. He supported some of the Hawke-Keating government's economic reforms, although he had little time for Bob Hawke or Paul Keating personally. Although it did not become effective until 14 September 1984,^[4] he announced his resignation from the Treasury on 15 August 1984,^[5] just six days before the 1984-85 Budget was handed down.^[6] This was seen by commentators at the time as a strong comment on the government's direction.

Despite what were in many respects neo-Liberal economic views, Stone initially opposed floating the currency and consistently deplored a consumption tax. Indeed, he had repeatedly denounced the GST (and then Treasurer Peter Costello) in print.

An informal advisor to Queensland's longest-serving Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Stone was elected to the Australian Senate from Queensland as a member of the pro-Bjelke-Petersen National Party contingent at the 1987 election. John Howard, Liberal Party leader at the time, appointed Stone the opposition's finance spokesman. Following the release of the Coalition's One Australia immigration policy in 1988, Stone publicly said:

"Asian immigration has to be slowed. It's no use dancing around the bushes"^[7]

In 1990 Stone left the Senate, to contest the House of Representatives seat of Fairfax, his Senate place being taken by Bill O'Chee.^[8] Unsuccessful in his attempt to win Fairfax, he abandoned parliamentary life thereafter, but remained very much in the public eye.

Since 1990 Stone has been an outspoken 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. Other Australian publications for which he has repeatedly written include The Sydney Morning Herald and the quarterly National Observer. Stone was 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" theory. Nevertheless, in its March 2008 issue, Quadrant magazine published an article in which Stone argued that Howard had been, on the whole, Australia's greatest Prime Minister.^[9]

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