Peter Howson (Australian politician)

Peter Howson (born 22 May 1919) is a former Australian politician.

Howson was the Liberal Party of Australia member for the House of Representatives seat of Fawkner from his defeat of William Bourke at the 1955 election until its abolition before the 1969 election. He was then elected as the member for Casey. He was appointed Minister for Air in June 1964 in Robert Menzies' last ministry.

In 1967, Harold Holt's government was attacked over allegations that it had misused the VIP aircraft fleet for ministers' private purposes. When asked to table records on the fleet's movements, Holt and Howson refused and implied that they did not exist, but Senator John Gorton later found that the records did exist and tabled them in the Senate. [cite web
title =John Gorton, before
publisher =National Archives of Australia
work=Australia's Prime Ministers
url =http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=19&pageName=before
accessdate = 2007-12-18 ] When Gorton became Prime Minister, on 10 January 1968, he retained Howson in his ministry, but after he won a seat in the House of Representatives he carried out a Cabinet reshuffle on 28 February 1968 and dropped Howson from the ministry. [cite web
title =John Gorton, in office
publisher =National Archives of Australia
work=Australia's Prime Ministers
url =http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=19&pageName=inoffice
accessdate = 2007-12-18 ]

Howson was appointed Minister for the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts in the McMahon Ministry in March 1971 and was thus Australia's first minister for the environment. Howson was defeated by Labor's Race Mathews at the 1972 election.cite web
title =Members of the House of Representatives since 1901
publisher =Parliament of Australia
work=Parliamentary Handbook
url =http://www.aph.gov.au/library/handbook/historical/representatives/heitmann.king.htm
accessdate = 2007-12-17 ]

Howson has been active as a commentator on Australia's treatment of its indigenous people [ [http://www.ipe.net.au/ageapril01.html Peter Howson, Academia's Sorry Obsession: Manne et al would help Aborigines more by looking at the present, not the past, "The Age", 3 April 2001] on the Institute for Private Enterprise website] [ [http://www.nationalobserver.net/2001_winter_legal.htm Peter Howson, Legal Notes: The Stolen Generations True Believers Take One Step Back, "National Observer", No. 49, Winter 2001] ] [ [http://www.bennelong.com.au/articles/howson-moore.php Peter Howson and Des Moore, A Rabbit-proof Fence Full of Holes] , The Bennelong Society, originally published in "The Australian", 11 March 2002] [ [http://quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=1121 Peter Howson, Land Rights—the Next Battleground] , "Quadrant June 2005 49:6] [ [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,20487307-7583,00.html Peter Howson, Live not by land alone: We should know by now that native title doesn't improve indigenous livelihood, "The Australian", 28 September 2006] ]

Notes

Persondata
NAME = Howson, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH = 22 May 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH =
DATE OF DEATH = Living
PLACE OF DEATH =