Australia

For me it was Howard. He was really effective at furthering many neo liberal economic policies to fuck over anyone not born in to wealth. Sure some of the more recent PMS have been more embarrassing and stupid (scummo, abbot) but Howard was an absolute arsehole.

He brought in the capital gains tax discount for real estate which when combined with the existing negative gearing policy was/is a major contributor driving investors to real estate thus making property become unaffordable. Not to mention it's just so unfair inequitable. Why the fuck should a person who buys existing houses pay less tax on money gained from that than someone who actually produces something of value does on their income?

He was the political equivalent of the FIFO miner spending all his cash on a Malloo, jet ski and glass BBQ party. Howard pissed the early - mid 2000s mining boom proceeds up the wall on middle class welfare. Instead we could have had a future fund like Norway. To be fair every politician we have had since has either been too corrupt or scared to attempt anything like that.

Howard also realised he could fuck over unions by bringing in masses of extra workers via record immigration in order to lower wages. (Added Bonus this increased demand on real estate too) He won't be remembered for that on immigration, instead he will be remembered for his "boat people" rhetoric. It was like a magicians distraction, look at these bad immigrants, meanwhile opening the floodgate for "good" immigrants.

He sold telecom setting our internet tech back at least a decade.

He dragged us in to the middle east wars like a good little lapdog for George dubbya.

He started the erosion of Medicare to please his private health fund donors.

As a millennial, not born in to 1% wealth, Howard and the liberal parties message to me has always been "go fuck yourself". I will never put liberal anywhere but the bottom of the ballot. Potato head might be fantasising about winning the votes of the working class by paying lip service to some issues we face and then campaigning against social issues we don't care about. I don't think that many of us are so foolish to think that the liberals will ever be anything but the party for the elite. Even then they are only the party for the honest elite, that wear their arseholery as a badge of honour. The other elites have the teals.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2024/mar/26/blaming-john-howard-is-easy-but-his-government-helped-shape-the-world-we-live-in-now-and-for-future-generations

It's definitely a competition between Abbott and Morrison.

You could make an argument for Fraser, but that would be purely on the fact that he got into power initially in a completely undemocratic foreign-backed coup. His actual governing was relatively reasonable.

Bloody Jeff.

Sold all our Publicly owned infrastructure to private companies.

Now we have to deal with electricity resellers screwing us over and the government needing to fork out Corporate Welfare in the form of “Energy Relief” to line their mates pockets.

@wildwhitehorses I doubt any state has ever had a leader worse than Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

This thread is a product of our collective ages. Billy McMahon is pretty universally thought of as the worst PM ever, but we're too young to remember him first-hand. A rich guy, I think he still holds the record for longest time in parliament. He was probably gay, but persecuted LGBT+ people.

Laurie Oakes: [he was] "devious, nasty, dishonest - he lied all the time and stole things". He tells a story where McMahon tried to steal (clearly labelled) radio station gear after an interview, claiming to own it.

Robert Menzies: "the most characterless man who was ever prime minister of Australia – a dreadful little man"

John McEwan almost succeeded in keeping McMahon out of the PM spot, by absolutely refusing to work with him. McMahon couldn't get party leadership until after McEwan retired. Gough Witlam reportedly called him a "notorious homosexual" and a "cunt" in a story told by McMahon - who complained that he "couldn't be both".

Challenge for anyone here: Google him and see if you can find anyone with something nice to say about him. The quotes you'll find about him are honestly hysterical. 😃

For me it was Scomo by a country mile. Abbott had some peculiar views, but he didn’t seem as totally incompetent.

I'd say the entire Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison trifecta was terrible.

Abbott was definitely out of his depth as PM, he never stopped being the leader of the opposition and was always pugilistic, impulsive and didn't think things through. He promised stable leadership but didn't have his party under enough control to ensure it - probably because he sort of skated into the role because those who the party actually wanted didn't make it. He got into power on the back of a campaign focused on debt and deficit, but had no policies to address it and I don't think he ever intended to. He played his pet issues but was aggressively ineffective at everything else.

Turnbull was a devastating disappointment. Hated by his own party, only used as a more popular and sensible replacement for the ousted Abbott, but never having any party backing for his agenda. I'd say he flamed out, but he was never even on fire. Reneged on his promises and ambitions for fear of reprisals from his party - a spineless creature whose years in power were an absolute waste and a net loss for the country.

And then of course Morrison. A sociopath who bradbury'd into the role because enough people in the party room had the self-awareness to realise Dutton as party leader would be a disaster. Obviously Morrison schemed his way through that entire leadership crisis and lied whenever he opened his mouth, not least when professing his support for the embattled Turnbull. He was probably the most useless PM, out of the country in times of crisis and actively refusing to show leadership. Not to mention the shameful mishandling of the pandemic.

Collectively these three set back social, economic and political development in this country back by at least a decade. We're all worse off thanks to the nine years of having these three clowns in power.

I can only go back as far as Howard, so my personal take is Albo; easily. There is lying on policy which is the norm but lying on values makes him the worst. He championed himself being the kid raised by single mum in a housing commision who was going to be strong on the strong. It was all BS.

In Qld we had Joh Bjelke-Petersen National government for 19 years, 7 elections. pretty much a police state, corrupt police and polies, gerrymanderd electorates.

Bob Menzies followed by John Howard.

set up the system where big companies didn't have to pay for resources

Edmund Barton. What an arse

As an American who occasionally follows Aussie politics, it is impressive how many ridiculously terrible PMs you guys have elected. My vote goes to ScuMo.