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Originally published in The Canberra Times on March 3, 2012

The left side of politics needs to get over its obsession with vision and leadership. While it may be hard for some on the left to admit it, it is pretty clear that John Howard was a radical, transformative and long-lived prime minister. He was never lauded, even by his own party, as visionary. But he was. Indeed, a large part of his success was due to other people denying he was achieving anything.

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