Janette Howard (née Parker; born 11 August 1944) is the wife of
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
, who was the
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007 and
the second-longest-serving Australian Prime Minister.
Early life, education, and personal life
![201000 - Cycling track Australian PM John Howard Janette Howard - 3b - 2000 Sydney spectator photo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/201000_-_Cycling_track_Australian_PM_John_Howard_Janette_Howard_-_3b_-_2000_Sydney_spectator_photo.jpg)
Alison Janette Parker was born in the suburb of
Kingsford, Sydney, in 1944. Her father was an engineer with the
New South Wales railways. The family later moved to
Vaucluse
Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.[Sydney Girls High School
, motto_translation = Work Conquers All
, location = Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales
, country = Australia
, coordinates =
, pushpin_map = Australia Sydney#New South Wales#Australia
, established =
, type = Governmen ...]
and trained as a teacher, graduating from the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
with a Bachelor of Arts.
She joined the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
and met
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
at a Liberal Party function. They were married on 4 April 1971, at St Peter's Anglican Church in
Watsons Bay
Watsons Bay is a harbourside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Watsons Bay is located 11 km north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra.
...
.
The Howards have three children, Melanie (born 1974, married Rowan McDonald in 2003), Timothy
[ (married Sarah Mackintosh in 2010) and Richard;][ as well as three grandchildren, Angus (born 2007), Alexander (born 2012), and Ariah (born 2015).
Janette Howard adopted a relatively low profile during her husband's tenure as prime minister; however, in 1999, a journalist alleged that she had intervened with the Prime Minister concerning an appointment to the board of the ]Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
. Janette issued a rare public statement denying the allegation as "not only wrong but deeply offensive to me".
In 1996, Janette Howard was diagnosed with cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal ...
and underwent surgery; the type of cancer was not revealed to the public until 2006. 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 has been active in advocating early screening for breast cancer for Australian women.
Janette Howard's public duties included 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
Kirribilli House is the secondary official residence of the Prime Minister of Australia. Located in the Sydney harbourside suburb of , New South Wales, the house is at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue. It is one of two official Prime M ...
in Sydney. She is also a patron of the National Portrait Gallery.
Political views
Janette Howard was always seen at the Prime Minister's side during election campaigns. According to John Howard's biographer Pru Goward
Prudence Jane "Pru" Goward (born 2 September 1952) is a former Australian politician and was a Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2007 to 2019, representing the seat of Goulburn.
She was the New South Wales Minis ...
, Janette "lives and breathes" politics. She also devoted time to "nursing" John Howard's electorate of Bennelong
Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong serv ...
, which, although a Liberal seat since its creation in 1949, gradually became less Liberal and culminated in the defeat of John Howard at the 2007 election by the Labor Party's Maxine McKew
Maxine Margaret McKew (born 22 July 1953) is a former Australian Labor politician and journalist; she was the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government in the First Rudd Ministry and the F ...
(the seat returned to Liberal hands at the 2010 election when McKew was defeated by John Alexander).
Although she rarely made any public comment on political issues, she did break this pattern by deciding to speak out against Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
during the 2007 election campaign.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Janette
People from Sydney
1944 births
Living people
Australian schoolteachers
People educated at Sydney Girls High School
Spouses of prime ministers of Australia
University of New South Wales alumni
University of Sydney alumni