Peter Costello blew his chance by pushing me, declares John Howard

JOHN Howard says that Peter Costello would have become PM in late 2006 but destroyed his prospects by attempting to force Mr Howard into retirement.

JOHN Howard says that Peter Costello would have become PM in late 2006 but destroyed his prospects by attempting to force Mr Howard into retirement.

The former prime minister says that in trying to pressure him to quit Mr Costello "completely misread both my temperament and my personality".

In an account that casts Mr Costello as weak and vacillating, Mr Howard expresses surprise that the former treasurer "imagined I would succumb to the sort of rank amateur pressure placed on me through media briefings".

Mr Howard reveals discussions in 2006 with several senior ministers - Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull, Alexander Downer and Mal Brough - who urged him to stay in office.

Dr Nelson said he would even consider running against Mr Costello himself. And Mr Turnbull was "adamantly against" Mr Costello becoming leader.

Mr Howard says Mr Costello "would never mount a challenge" because he never had enough support, yet he seemed unable to give Mr Howard the freedom to pick his own retirement timing.

His final decision to remain as prime minister for the 2007 election was "not what I had either expected or hoped for".

While Mr Howard believed it was the right decision, he says he "felt no joy about it".

But in a critical admission, Mr Howard says Kevin Rudd's elevation to the Labor leadership in late 2006 offered "another exit option for me" - an option Mr Howard rejected.

He concedes he made two critical mistakes in handling the leadership: his July 2000 interview with 2GB's Philip Clark, when he floated the prospect of retiring, and his September 2007 request to Mr Downer to canvass the cabinet about his departure.

Mr Howard calls this request a "serious mistake".

The former PM's version of the Liberal leadership crisis on the eve of the 2007 election invites the conclusion he temporarily lost his nerve. The leadership is dealt with in chapter 44 of Mr Howard's 711-page memoir titled Lazarus Rising, published by HarperCollins, serialised in The Weekend Australian starting tomorrow, and dedicated to his parents, his family and former minister John Carrick.

Mr Howard's pivotal argument on the leadership is that after talking with wife Janette he decided to retire before Christmas 2006 but kept the decision secret to ensure it was not leaked to the media, thereby undermining his political and national authority.

But he abandoned this plan as a result of the events surrounding Glenn Milne's July 2006 report in News Limited papers claiming Mr Howard had broken a 1994 agreement with Mr Costello to retire from his position earlier.

Mr Costello said later he had permitted Ian McLachlan, Milne's source, to confirm the story.

"He had cast his bread upon the water," Mr Howard says of Mr Costello's action. "He hoped the story would shift the dynamic of the leadership issue in his favour."

The result, Mr Howard says, "destroyed Peter Costello's hopes of my retiring before the 2007 election". He describes this as a "tragedy' for the government.

Mr Howard puts the entire blame on Mr Costello. "Peter's inept handling of the December 1994 story incident had created a situation where I had no alternative but to announce when I did that I would stay," he says.

The repeated theme in Mr Howard's reluctance to retire is the fear that such action would be interpreted as cowardice. In late 2007, when Mr Downer told him the cabinet would not "own" or be responsible for a request for him to stand aside, Mr Howard refused to resign, saying: " I would rather go down fighting than desert on the eve of the battle."

At this point Mr Howard and his family closed ranks. Mrs Howard and the three children "were adamant I should not look as if I were running from an electoral fight".

Mr Howard says that after Mr Rudd became leader of the Labor Party, Liberal sentiment intensified for him to stay as prime minister. He argues that resignation at this point would have "dramatically enhanced the perception of Rudd as a world-beater".

Mr Howard concedes that he thought about retirement once again but concluded it was still not a viable option. And the longer the issue continued into 2007, the more Mr Howard decided it was "long past the time" when he could retire in advance of the election.

In the book, Mr Howard outlines his philosophy of leadership: that "nobody has an entitlement to lead a political party", that fairness and loyalty are not relevant, and that parties vote for leaders solely on the basis of their election victory prospects.