John Howard’s ‘when I’m 64’ hint gave Peter Costello little hope

John Howard’s 64th birthday was time for reflection and he decided to stay in the nation’s top job.

Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello in 2003.

When John Howard – taking a cue from The Beatles – promised to consider his future when he turned 64 in July 2003, his long-serving deputy Peter Costello could have been forgiven for thinking this might be his chance to claim the nation’s top job.

In a candid birthday interview with Philip Clark on ABC Radio Sydney in July 2000, Mr Howard said he would make up his mind about continuing as prime minister when he reached 64. But a month before the self-imposed deadline, Mr Howard announced that he would go on leading the government.

“I just ran off with the mouth,” Mr Howard told The Australian. “I was just saying that by then, I’d be 64 and that nothing goes on forever. And what’s wrong with saying that?”

He accepts that it may have given his deputy some hope of a leadership transition in the government’s third term but, in any event, Mr Howard told Mr Costello at the beginning of 2003 that he planned to stay on.

Mr Costello told The Australian he held out little chance of a leadership transition and did not contemplate a leadership challenge, even though he had been deputy to two leaders – Mr Howard and Alexander Downer – since May 1994.

“When he got a go of being prime minister, that’s what he wanted,” Mr Costello said of Mr Howard. “He did a term and he thought ‘I can do another term’, and then he went for another.

“In retrospect, I see now that he was just going to hang on for every day that he could. That was basically it. But every now and then he would talk about a leadership transition. And I’d say, ‘Oh yeah, fair enough. We’ll see what happens.’ It never happened.”

Mr Howard said he did not believe there would be a leadership challenge from Mr Costello. “I felt that the majority of my colleagues wanted me to stay,” he recalled. “And how did I know that? Because I spent a lot of time with them.”