PM's stature grows with arms ban
If, as the saying goes, a week is a long time in politics, then two weeks is a lifetime.
In the past fortnight, Australians have watched with relief as Prime Minister John Howard bullied state governments into accepting, after a decade of procrastination, a national ban on automatic and semi-automatic guns.
According to a Newspoll survey published yesterday in The Australian, Mr Howard's approval rating jumped 17 percentage points in the wake of his gun control initiatives and 67 per cent of voters are now satisfied with his performance. This is 24 points higher than the highest rating achieved by former prime minister Paul Keating.
The bans have significantly reduced the chances of a repeat of April's Port Arthur massacre, in which 29-year-old Martin Bryant, armed with a semi-automaticrifle, allegedly killed 35 people and wounded 19.
In addition, the new controls represent an assertion of federal authority over the states and a political rout of the extreme right-wing, whose power base lies among the gun-toting pastoralists of the Outback.
Two weeks ago, Mr Howard's opponents derisively and habitually referred to him as 'Little Johnnie'. With his credibility as a leader growing exponentially in the wake of gun prohibition, Johnnie is suddenly not so little anymore. Now political analysts are saying that the Howard Government will be remembered above all for arresting Australia's slide into US-style gun culture.
