I watched, or I should say flicked in an out of, the first part of the Howard years last night. I must admit I had forgotten some of the blanket changes to this country his government made in the first few years in power.

The passing of the gun laws was something of little concern for me at the time but with the benefit of hindsight I am amazed they got past this one. A few years after this battle was fought I found myself living in an area of the country where people were still very upset about this and it became more of a story to me after the fact. Don’t worry, a large amount of these guns are still hidden and buried on properties all over the country. John got his way, but not all the way

Then they went after the wharf workers in a battle that both sides claim partial victory but in one Peter Reith doesn’t come off (to me) as totally honest. Reith’s move (years later) into a company closely associated with his political role left a bad taste in many a mouth also.

Then, after all that, the bane of John Hewson’s political existence, the GST. I recall this as not such major concern to me because there was always a sales tax and the GST seemed to bring commonality to the whole thing. But I can understand the fears that many people had about this tax.

In the end he got all of this through and kept office which looing back is pretty surprising.