An Extract from Kim's Dynasty: The Coming Federal Labor Government plus audio file

From the time they were elected as leaders of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party in late January 1995, John Howard and Peter Costello have been a unique combination. In his first statement as leader Howard said: “…almost unique among centre-right parties around the world the Liberal Party of Australia is a coalition of liberals and conservatives. It brings together these two great traditions in the policy. It is neither exclusively, as some would argue, a conservative party, nor is it exclusively a small ‘l’ liberal party. It is both.”  In many ways this characterizes the Howard-Costello partnership. It has been a complicated history and they are an unlikely combination that has provided a good deal of strength and balance to the Federal Liberal Party. But in July 2006 strength was replaced by open dissension between the two men, between their followers across the Federal Liberal Party, between new contenders who want to lead the Federal Liberal Party and across the classical fault lines of the Liberal Party.

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