Editing Liberal Party of Australia (section)

===Howard government===
{{Main|Howard government}}
[[File:Howard John BANNER b.jpg|left|100px|thumb|[[John Howard]], Prime Minister 1996–2007]]
[[File:Vladimir Putin at APEC Summit in Australia 7-9 September 2007-18.jpg|thumb|Prime Minister [[John Howard]] with [[Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation|APEC]] leaders in Sydney in 2007. Howard supported the traditional icons of Australian identity and its international allegiances, but oversaw booming trade with Asia and increased non-European immigration.]]

Labor's [[Paul Keating]] lost the [[1996 Australian federal election|1996 Election]] to the Liberals' [[John Howard]]. The Liberals had been in Opposition for exactly 13 years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/keating/in-office.aspx |title=In office – Paul Keating – Australia's PMs – Australia's Prime Ministers |publisher=Primeministers.naa.gov.au |access-date=21 June 2012 |archive-date=2 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202031451/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/keating/in-office.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> [[John Howard]] was sworn in as prime minister on 11 March, the 13th anniversary of the Liberals entering opposition following the swearing in of Bob Hawke. With Howard as prime minister, [[Peter Costello]] as treasurer and [[Alexander Downer]] as foreign minister, the [[Howard government]] remained in power until their electoral defeat to [[Kevin Rudd]] in 2007.

Howard generally framed the Liberals as being conservative on social policy, debt reduction and matters like maintaining Commonwealth links and the American Alliance but his premiership saw booming trade with [[Asia]] and expanding multiethnic [[immigration]]. His government concluded the [[Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement]] with the Bush administration in 2004.<ref name="Primeministers.naa.gov.au-2"/>

Howard differed from his Labor predecessor Paul Keating in that he supported traditional Australian institutions like the [[monarchy in Australia]], the commemoration of [[ANZAC Day]] and the design of the Australian flag, but like Keating he pursued privatisation of public utilities and the introduction of a broad based consumption tax (although Keating had dropped support for a GST by the time of his 1993 election victory). Howard's premiership coincided with Al Qaeda's 11 September attacks on the United States. The [[Howard government]] invoked the ANZUS treaty in response to the attacks and supported America's campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In the [[2004 Australian federal election|2004 federal elections]] the party strengthened its majority in the [[Australian House of Representatives|lower house]] and, with its coalition partners, became the first federal government in twenty years to gain an absolute majority in the [[Australian Senate|Senate]]. This control of both houses permitted their passing of legislation without the need to negotiate with independents or minor parties, exemplified by industrial relations legislation known as [[WorkChoices]], a wide-ranging effort to increase deregulation of industrial laws in Australia.

In 2005, Howard reflected on his government's cultural and foreign policy outlook in oft repeated terms:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://au.chineseembassy.org/eng/xw/t190220.htm |title=Transcript of the Prime Ministerthe Hon John Howard Mpaddress to the Lowy Institute For International Policy |publisher=Au.chineseembassy.org |access-date=21 June 2012 |archive-date=8 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208225430/http://au.chineseembassy.org/eng/xw/t190220.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|When I became Prime Minister nine years ago, I believed that this nation was defining its place in the world too narrowly. My Government has rebalanced Australia's foreign policy to better reflect the unique intersection of history, geography, culture and economic opportunity that our country represents. Time has only strengthened my conviction that we do not face a choice between our history and our geography.}}

The [[2007 Australian federal election|2007 federal election]] saw the defeat of the Howard federal government, and the Liberal Party was in opposition throughout Australia at the state and federal level; the highest Liberal office-holder at the time was Lord Mayor of Brisbane [[Campbell Newman]]. This ended after the [[2008 Western Australian state election]], when [[Colin Barnett]] became premier of that state.