Government News Index
PM challenge 'could come soon'
AAP
21mar02
PRIME Minister John Howard could face a leadership challenge sooner rather than later, a think-tank has argued.
Australia Institute executive director Clive Hamilton said Mr Howard's judgment had been called into question during the children overboard affair, the governor-general controversy and now confidant Bill Heffernan's allegations against High Court judge Michael Kirby.
"A lot of these very smelly affairs have come very close to the Prime Minister and his office," Dr Hamilton told the Nine network.
"And so a lot of backbenchers are starting to get quite uneasy about the electoral prospects in the future - we know that (Treasurer) Peter Costello has been waiting in the wings ... and I think the challenge will come sooner rather than later."
Dr Hamilton said the Prime Minister would be further damaged if it was proved his former driver provided the false Comcar records used by Senator Heffernan to back up his claims about Justice Kirby and rent boys.
"There's a real pattern emerging that the Prime Minister will go in boots and all for a while but as soon as it gets too hot he'll start to withdraw and try and put walls up around him," he said.
"The Prime Minister, as things get closer to him, is a master of blame shifting and I think we've seen that over the last few months but you can only do it for so long."