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John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian politician and the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies, and is the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Howard 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.

Under his leadership, the Liberal-National Party Coalition won the general election of 2 March 1996, 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 in the 1998, 2001 and 2004 elections. Howard is running for a fifth term in the 2007 election against the opposition Australian Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd.