Perhaps Howard also developed a bit of a complex about reversing political positions taken previously, again arguably partially a reaction to events, such as Keating’s “L-A-W” tax cuts, and public anger regarding his own change of tack in relation to the GST, which almost cost him the election in 1999.

I think basically he was a reactionary, in the truest sense of reacting not proposing. His industrial relations agenda was a reaction against most of 20th century laborism. Not like he invented that agenda or anything.

But mostly, I think that Howard was someone who like Richard Nixon, was overwhelmed by bitterness. By the time he won office as Prime Minister, he was twisted by the real and perceived slights of his career and life to that point. I don’t think big-heartedness was ever likely to be part of the equation. I think his actual opinions about the original inhabitants of this country were probably, at worst, summed up by total indifference. But his culture-war friends in the media etc. probably bolstered a lot of his more resentful attitudes, and so it goes, and so it goes.