THE protester who threw his shoes at John Howard on live TV has said he wanted global attention, but so far he has mostly been told he throws "like a girl".

The protester, named as Peter Gray, has spoken about the incident on ABC radio in Melbourne this morning, as Mr Howard was laughing off the confrontation on commercial radio.

Mr Gray staged the stunt after asking Mr Howard on the ABC's Q&A program how he defended committing Australia to the Iraq war, in light of recent tolls of the civilian death toll seven years after the conflict. He threw both shoes at Mr Howard, saying "that's for the Iraqi dead", but neither hit the former prime minister.

"I wanted to throw my shoes at John Howard and have the rest of the world see it, certainly," Mr Gray has said. "I certainly didn't want to hurt the man but I certainly wanted to make my point known."

But he has admitted most of the reaction has been critical of him, his arm and his aim. "Quite a few people said I throw like a girl."

Speaking on Macquarie radio this morning, Mr Howard made light of the incident. "Is anyone here taking their shoes off? I'm looking around,'' Mr Howard joked during a studio interview.

"All in a night's work,'' he added. "I've been thrown at by experts so why should I worry about that?''

While Mr Gray is copping flak for his lack of precision and power and questions are asked about security standards on the set, Mr Howard also has experience with high-profile aim fails, as this infamous YouTube clip shows:

The former PM was also blindsided when he was quizzed by David Hicks about why he was left at Guantanamo Bay military prison for five and a half years.

Mr Howard, who was promoting his memoir Lazarus Rising on the program, stood by his decision to send troops to Iraq, had no apology for the treatment of Mr Hicks and defended his approach to asylum seekers.

No shoes, no service

Mr Gray criticised Mr Howard about his decision to go to war in Iraq in his question and persistently interrupted the answer before he launched his protest. ABC staff removed him from the studio.

A female audience member then shouted: "You've got blood on your hands", before walking out of the studio.

Mr Howard took the incident in his stride. "It's all right, don't worry. Forget it, forget it. Relax," he told host Tony Jones who apologised for the breach.



An audience member told Mr Howard "if that's all they've got to throw at you, you've got nothing to worry about".

According to an ABC source the man later asked if he could pick up his shoes tomorrow, but staff refused.



The incident had echoes of an infamous incident when former US president George W. Bush was nearly hit by two shoes thrown by an anti-war protester during a trip to Iraq in 2008. Mr Howard was a strong advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq.



In a video message to Mr Howard, Mr Hicks asked why he had been left so long in Guantanamo Bay and about the military commission trial he faced. Mr Howard said Mr Hicks was not a hero and he knowingly associated with the Taliban after September 11.

Climate, apology, history



Mr Howard said he would wear the criticism about his refusal to apologise to the Stolen Generation and he still had "doubt'' saying while many people who were removed suffered, many were advantaged.



On climate change, Mr Howard said he was "a climate agnostic''.



Mr Howard said the "totality'' of his book was "overwhelmingly favourable'' to his treasurer Peter Costello and the leadership tensions were "understandable'' but the duo had left a "great legacy''.



"History is about what you do and what Peter and I did together was build an Australian economy that was bullet proof,'' he said.



Mr Howard urged Liberals to "hold their nerve'' and keep Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader. "I think the Liberal Party would be mad to have anybody else,'' he said. "I'm a 150 per cent Abbott man.''



He said it was "too early to make a judgment about Julia Gillard as Prime Minister'' but he doubted she could deliver serious reform because of the "cosmopolitan collection'' she had to put together to stay in office.



He said Kevin Rudd would "never return'' as PM, but asked if he might make a comeback, Mr Howard evoked one of his most controversial statements about the GST: "Never ever''.

Meanwhile, Ms Gillard has condemned the Q&A incident saying, there is "no excuse" for throwing shoes at John Howard.

"There's no excuse for that kind of disrespectful conduct towards anyone," Ms Gillard said today.

"It's the wrong thing to do."