Alexander Downer - Opposition Leader

Opposition Leader

When Prime Minister Malcom Fraser lost in March 1983, The Liberals were in opposition for the first time since 1975, with intally Andrew Peacock as opposition leader(1983–85), then John Howard (1985–89), then Andrew Peacock again (1989-1990), and then John Hewson. Several years after entering parliament Downer in time held a number of positions on the Opposition front bench from 1987 onwards, although he did depart from the front bench for a certain amount of time due to a possible scandal emerging related to the League of Rights. When the Liberals unexpectedly lost the 1993 election to Prime Minister Paul Keating, after the election Downer became Shadow Treasurer replacing Peter Reith who had resigned from the portfolio . During this time Downer began to be talked of as a possible leader, and in May 1994 he succeeded John Hewson as leader of the Liberal party after defeating the Professor of economics in a leadership ballot,(Hewson inteneded to resign if the Coalition lost 1993 election and continued on regardless).

As Liberal leader, Downer initially attracted record levels of public support, even when incumbent Prime Minister Paul Keating launched a series of attacks on Downer's privileged background. Then aged forty three, he was perceived as a fresh-faced alternative to a government in its 12th year of power. Indeed, Bob Hawke predicted that Downer would be Australia's next Prime Minister.

Several months after becoming leader Downer's support base was quickly eroded, however, by a series of embarrassing public blunders, one such incident was the sacking of John Hewson from the shadow ministry in August 1994. During 1994 Downer expressed interest in repealing the Mabo Legislation if elected at the next federa election due to be arranged by 1996 A major incident that damaged Downer's leadership was a scandal which happned at a formal dinner. Donwer while promoting the Liberal slogan "The Things That Matter", Downer then joked that the party's domestic violence policy would accordingly be named "The Things That Batter", referring to abusive husbands. Downer also found it difficult to handle the gulf between monarchists and republicans in his own party. By the end of 1994, his approval ratings had dwindled to 34 percent after being as high as 53 percent.

On 9 January 1995, internal Liberal Party polling showed that with Downer as leader, the Coalition had a slim chance of holding its marginal seats in the next election, let alone of winning government. On 11 January, Downer launched a major policy statement with ten policy commitments and criticised Liberals he saw as undermining his leadership. Downer negotiated in mid-January with now back-bencher Hewson, but this resulted in Hewson publicly declaring he wanted the shadow Treasury portfolio, which was held by Downer's deputy, Peter Costello. On 26 January 1995 he resigned as Liberal Leader and John Howard was elected unopposed to replace him. Downer pledged his support to Howard and said he would "kneecap" anyone who undermined Howard's second attempt at winning the prime ministership.

With a tenure of just over eight months, Downer is to date the shortest-serving leader of the federal Liberal Party. He is also, with Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull, one of three federal Liberal leaders never to lead the party into an election. On opposition leadership, he said in 2008 that: "The moment when I wanted to was just about the first day I started in the job. There was many a time from the first day onwards when I thought to myself, How the hell can I get out of this?"