John Hewson

John Hewson

John Robert Hewson AM (born October 28, 1946 in Sydney , New South Wales ) is an Australian economist and former politician. Among other things, he was chairman of the Liberal Party of Australia .

Early life

Hewson was born in Sydney , New South Wales , the son of a conservative working class technician. He attended state schools before graduating from Sydney University with an economics degree. He received a master's degree in Saskatchewan, Canada, and a second master's degree, as well as a doctorate in economics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA . He married his first wife Margaret Deaves in 1967.

Upon his return to Australia, Hewson worked as an economist for the Reserve Bank of Australia . From 1976 to 1983 he was employed by the two Liberal Finance Ministers Phillip Lynch and John Howard . During this time he decided to go into politics himself. He believed the economic policies of Malcolm Fraser's administration were wrong and was a proponent of Margaret Thatcher's economic policies . After his divorce, Hewson married Carolyn Somerville in 1988.

Political career

In 1987, Hewson was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the affluent Sydney suburb of Wentworth. In September 1988, he was appointed opposition finance officer by Howard, who lost the federal election the year before. In May 1989, after Andrew Peacock Howard had replaced as party chairman, was Hewson supervising Finance of Paul Keating . After Peacock's defeat in the 1990 federal election, Hewson was elected party chairman, despite having only served three years in parliament. In the vote, he clearly prevailed with 62 to 13 votes against Peter Reith, who then became vice-party leader.

Hewson's personal dislike of his competitor Keating ensured that he did not take him seriously. Keating, in turn, was able to take advantage of Hewson's lack of political ability. In the 1993 federal election, Hewson lost the election to Keating, previously described by the Liberals as "captive".

Although he had previously given his word of honor to resign if he lost the election, Hewson decided to continue as party leader. Although he succeeded in asserting himself against John Howard as chairman shortly after the election, his leadership was no longer secure from now on. Due to the doubts about himself, Hewson called out a vote of confidence in 1994 and lost the party leadership to Alexander Downer . In February 1995 he retired from parliament, making for one of the shortest political careers for an Australian party leader.

According to politics

In the years after his resignation, he wrote for the business press, drawing attention to topics such as social, economic responsibility and environmental problems. After 1996 he became increasingly critical of Prime Minister John Howard. So he was a strict opponent of participation in the Iraq war - due to the lack of an alternative, however, he spoke out in favor of a continuation of Howard's reign, as there were no alternatives.

After the turn of the millennium, Hewson also worked as a professor in his hometown of Sydney.

He is chairman of the Commission for the Human Future , an association of scientists and citizens founded in 2017 that deals with central global challenges and problems facing humanity. It published a report in April 2020 in which it listed what it believed to be the ten greatest threats to humanity. These are, therefore: environmental degradation and species loss , nuclear weapons , scarcity of resources (including water scarcity), food insecurity, dangerous new technologies, overpopulation , chemical pollution, pandemic diseases as well as denial of science and misinformation.

Web links

• Criticism Hewsons on Australia's involvement in the Iraq war (English)
• Biography his time as an economist (English)
• Biography Hewsons (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ten threats to humanity's survival Identified in Australian report calling for action . In: The Guardian , April 22, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020.