Frank, you are forgetting that he campaigned on an extremely unpopular GST platform for the 99 election. The polls didn't support him then either. His support for the Archbishop as GG during the child abuse issue was hardly popular either. Iraq is not the first time for Howard to take an unpopular stance and won't be the last I am sure.
Geoff Dixon has made several good attempts to justify the case for lifting the restrictions on foreign ownership for QF. These are primarily related to capital raising ability in a global market. This is difficult to argue against if the govt has embraced global competition. I can recall Geoff Dixon addressing the Press Club and stating that QF's ability to compete in the future depended on the lifting of ownership restrictions. He was adamant that this was his No. 1 strategic goal. As I said before, if Howard was beholden to QF then the ownership restrictions would have been lifted.