The 1996-2007 Howard government made the most determined attempt to change Australian society since the brief and revolutionary Whitlam era of the early 1970s. Was it successful? SBS presents a provocative consideration of how this country changed as a result of one man’s determination to make his particular mark.

The teaser preview (viewable on SBS’s website under “sneak peek TV”, though there’s no convenient direct link) suggests that this version will at least attempt some critical analysis, rather than just serving as a piece of extended stenography as The Howard Years did. The massive handwave about the sale of Telstra in the teaser doesn’t bode well, though.

ELSEWHERE: Joni at Blogocrats (and others in comments) have noted Gerard Henderson’s spray on the program, which he describes as a “shocker and a disgrace”. It sounds better already…

Meanwhile, the man himself is running out of places to hide. The US no longer offers such a congenial political climate for John Howard, although there’s still Fox News for him to appear on.

It’s interesting how times change. The “big government conservative” is now gettin’ some lovin’ from the Catallaxy crew:

Also, former PM Howard weighs into the financial crisis debate and takes the side of the Austrian libertarian interepretation. [sic]

That would be the claim that the subprime mess, and therefore presumably the global financial crisis, is all the fault of those poor people who wanted to own homes. How this squares with Howard’s own role in promoting aspirationalism and the housing bubble is anyone’s guess. But then truth-telling, and indeed consistency, were never his strong suits. It’s a rather horrendous thing to contemplate as to what sort of approach he’d have taken if he’d been re-elected and the current economic conniptions were occurring on his watch.

Elsewhere: Guy Beres, Public Opinion.