Honest John

got his nickname in 1978 when he had to put on a tax surcharge to pay for the fistful of tax dollars his PM Fraser had promised in the election six months before. "Fair dinkum, honest, this time it's really really true, the tax surcharge is only a little surcharge and it's only for six months. Fair dinkum, that's all, not even a year." Anyway, at the end of six months, the government was still in debt so guess what. "Honest, fair dinkum, I'm not lying to you, 'pon me farver's grave, bless his soul, and Winston Churchill's too -'ees me namesake you know, destiny an' all that like - would I lie to you, I just need to extend the tax surcharge, just a little bit more, I just need a bit more time. That's all, fair dinkum, You know me, I trust you like. Just another six months." Like all con men, he knows how to get to you. He wouldn't know a cricket ball from a cricket bat but he knows cricket's a good image. He never set up the stumps or umpired his children's cricket or scored. He left that for other parents to do while he built his political career. His Church tradition is the sitting and standing one of Methodism. Catholics and High Anglicans are the kneelers and hand claspers but Howard is cunning enough to know that kneeling and hand clasping is the image the mainly atheist Australian voter associate with Christian so that's the image he shows whenever the TV cameras are on him. This way he distinguishes himself from the secular humanists (like Hawke and Hayden) who attend Church for ceremonials like funerals.