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John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies, and was leader of the Liberal Party of Australia for over 16 years. Howard was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1974 to 2007, representing the Division of Bennelong, New South Wales. He served as Treasurer in the government of Malcolm Fraser from 1977 - 1983. He was Leader of the Liberal Party and Coalition Opposition from 1985 - 1989, which included the 1987 federal election against Bob Hawke. He was re-elected as Leader of the Opposition in 1995. Howard led the Liberal-National Coalition to victory at the 1996 federal election, defeating Paul Keating's Labor government and ending a record 13 years of Coalition opposition. Howard was sworn in as Prime Minister on 11 March 1996. Howard's government was re-elected at the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections but was defeated at the 2007 election by the Labor opposition led by Kevin Rudd. Howard was also defeated in his electorate of Bennelong by Labor's Maxine McKew, making him the second Australian Prime Minister, after Stanley Bruce in 1929, to lose his own seat.
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