Peter Costello says that the Howard government could have solved constitutional issues concerning the republic. He makes the case that the failure of the Howard government to engineer the end of the British monarchy in Australia was a mistake.

Mr Costello is right on both counts, but his own conduct in the 1999 Referendum campaign was ambiguous, driven, as it was by a loathing of Australian Republican Movement Chairman Malcolm Turnbull and a reluctance to identify himself and campaign for a republic model in which he did not fully believe.

That Costello was no friend of Turnbull’s in those days was made abundantly clear to me by these two incidents. When John Fahey, then Finance minister, announced in early 1999 that Goldman Sachs, of which Turnbull was Australian boss, had won the role as the Government’s adviser on the sale of the second tranche of Telstra, Costello and his office made it clear to me that the appointment was not a good one.

The attitude of the Treasurer and his office — and the PM’s office shared this view — was that the Howard government shouldn’t do Turnbull any favours. The appointment of Goldman Sachs was taken by an independent advisory committee who made a recommendation to Fahey.

A couple of months later when I was chosen by Turnbull to run the 1999 Referendum campaign Costello congratulated me on getting the gig, and muttered about his dislike of Turnbull.

During the Referendum campaign itself Costello did get involved in campaigning for a republic, but not until relatively late in the piece. I went to see him at his Malvern electorate office, from memory in around September 1999, two months before the Referendum, and we discussed a role for him. He made it clear to me that he did not support the parliamentary election model of appointing a president, preferring instead the so called McGarvie model, which would have handed the selection power to a council of high profile esteemed Australians.

But when Costello’s fellow Victorian minister Peter Reith began to campaign for a directly elected president, Costello decided to get active in the campaign. He agreed to deliver a speech in Melbourne for Andrew Robb’s Australians for a Conservative Head of State on October 27, two weeks before the Referendum.

That speech it has to be said was stunning. It simply ripped to shreds the opponents of a republic, and clearly articulated a compelling case for change. I recall thinking at the time — if only Costello had hit the hustings earlier because his ability to sell the case for a yes vote in the November Referendum was superb.

But Costello’s overall conduct in the lead up to the republic referendum campaign was marked by equivocation, contempt for Turnbull and the ARM and finally a recognition that it was to his advantage to get out and actively support the Yes vote late in the day.

Greg Barns was Chief of Staff to Finance Minister John Fahey from 1996-1999.