MAIN ISSUES FOR PM HOWARD'S FIRST TERM
* March 2, 1996: Australia elects a coalition government, ending 13 years of Labor rule. John Howard becomes the nation's 25th, and ultimately our second-longest-serving, prime minister.
* Less than two months later gunman Martin Bryant murders 35 people at Port Arthur, Tasmania, prompting Howard to push through the National Firearms Agreement that banned semi-automatic rifles and delivered national gun laws.
* Pauline Hanson makes her first speech to parliament in September 1996, warning Australia is at risk of being swamped by Asians. She launches the One Nation party.
* The coalition was on a collision course with the unions, particularly waterfront workers, culminating in the bitter dispute of March 1998.
* Howard puts a broad-based consumption tax back on the agenda, making some MPs nervous. This was the key issue behind the coalition's 1993 election defeat. The Goods and Services Tax, introduced in July 2000, is now regarded as one of the coalition's signature economic reforms.
* Just before Christmas in 1996, the High Court delivered its ruling in the Wik case, holding that native title could co-exist with pastoral leases. This meant leases did not extinguish native title. Legislation to reverse this finally passed in July 1998 following the longest chamber debate in Senate history.
* The Bringing Them Home report into indigenous children removed from their families - the Stolen Generations - was tabled in parliament in May 1997. John Howard declined to make a formal apology.
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