Paul Howes | |
---|---|
National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union | |
In office 24 November 2007 –2014 | |
Preceded by | Bill Shorten |
Succeeded by | Scott McDine |
Personal details | |
Born | Sydney,New South Wales,Australia | 23 August 1981
Political party | Democratic Socialist Perspective (1993–1996) Australian Labor Party (1996–present) |
Occupation | Union official |
Paul Howes (born 23 August 1981) was involved in the Australian trade union movement from 1999 through 2014. His most recent position was as National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union,the youngest person to serve in that position. [1] In 2008,Howes was elected as vice president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, [2] and he served on a number of Government boards. [3]
Howes resigned from his position as AWU National Secretary on 24 March 2014;he formally stepped down in July. [4]
Howes entered politics while still at Blaxland High School in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales,joining the far-left political groups Democratic Socialist Party. He did not finish high school,leaving in Year 9. [5]
By the age of 16,after a solidarity trip to Cuba to the World Festival of Youth and Students,Howes abandoned far-left politics and joined the Australian Labor Party. [1] In an interview [5] with the newspaper The Age Howes stated:"A beautiful country with beautiful people,but I didn't like seeing people getting arrested or the clear and transparent oppression and propaganda,and I eventually thought,'This is all bonkers'".
Howes has three children from his first marriage. He is married to Qantas executive Olivia Wirth. [6]
Howes became a union official at the age of 17 when he was employed as a research officer by the Labor Council of New South Wales (now Unions New South Wales). He joined the Australian Workers' Union as an official in New South Wales in 2002 and was later recruited to the National Office of the union. In 2005 he was elected as the union's National Vice President,becoming the youngest national official in the history of the union. He was elected National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union following the election of former AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten to the Australian House of Representatives in November 2007.[ citation needed ]
Howes was also Deputy Chair of AustralianSuper, [3] one of the largest superannuation trusts in Australia. [7] He was also a member of the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party. He was a director of the Chifley Research Centre and the McKell Institute as well as representing the Asia Pacific Region on the executive committee of the IndustriALL Global Union.[ citation needed ]
Howes came to national attention as a union spokesperson for the miners during the Beaconsfield Mine Disaster. [1]
In December 2008,Howes was elected vice president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. In February 2009 and February 2013,he was re-elected unopposed as the National Secretary of The Australian Workers' Union. An episode of ABC program Australian Story ,broadcast August 2010, [1] highlighted his influence within Labor,especially leading up to the 2010 Australian federal election. [8]
In November 2010 Howes wrote Confessions of a Faceless Man:inside campaign 2010,an autobiographical analyses of the election and 18 months in Australian politics. [9] [10] [11] He also gave a speech to the Sydney Institute,which The Australian published as an opinion piece headed:"ALP's faceless men must learn to tolerate dissent." [12]
In 2013,Howes was considered for an appointment to the Australian Senate,but subsequently withdrew his nomination in September,while announcing his intention to continue to serve as the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union. In explaining his reasons for stepping down,Howes stated that his public support for gay marriage had drawn the ire of pro-Catholic right-wing members of the ALP. Speaking to reporters,Howes stated that "I don't want to be a wrecker and I don't want to divide. It is clear if I was to be a candidate for this position it would be a divisive,negative and destructive fight in the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party". [13] [14]
In a speech in February 2014,Howes provoked controversy by arguing that the biggest problem with industrial relations in Australia is the constant changes in the regulatory framework. He called for a new partnership between business,government and unions to collaborate and agree to a framework which could provide a stable industrial relations environment. Howes declared agreement with the Abbott government saying there had been "unsustainable growth in wages" in some sectors of the economy. [15]
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known simply as Labor or the Labor Party, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since being elected at the 2022 federal election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they currently form government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where Labor forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australian history, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.
Vincent Clair Gair was an Australian politician. He served as Premier of Queensland from 1952 until 1957, when his stormy relations with the trade union movement saw him expelled from the Labor Party. He was elected to the Australian Senate and led the Democratic Labor Party from 1965 to 1973. In 1974 he was appointed Australian Ambassador to Ireland by the Whitlam government, which caused his expulsion from the DLP.
The Labor Right is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically liberal or more socially conservative than the Labor Left. The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.
John Philip Faulkner is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1989 to 2015. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments.
The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exercised an outsized influence on the Australian Trade Union movement and on the Australian Labor Party throughout its history.
William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician and former trade unionist serving as the current Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. Previously, Shorten was leader of the opposition and leader of the Labor Party (ALP) from 2013 to 2019. A member of parliament (MP) for the division of Maribyrnong since 2007, Shorten also held several ministerial portfolios in the Gillard and Rudd governments from 2010 to 2013.
William Patrick Ludwig was an Australian trade union official, who served as National President of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), with a brief interruption, from 1989 to 2017. He served two terms from 1989 until 1997 and from 2001 until 2017. He also served as Queensland Branch Secretary Queensland Branch Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), from 1988 to 2013.
Faceless men is a term from Australian politics. The term is generally used to refer to men and women who exert political influence and are not elected representatives to state, territory or federal legislative bodies, yet are elected representatives to bodies that determine political party policies. However, the political tactic of elected representatives canvassing party members for support on policies varies widely amongst Australian political parties.
Edward Grayndler was an Australian trade unionist and politician. He served as general secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) from 1912 to 1941, the longest term in the union's history.
Gary Gray, Australian former politician and Australia's Ambassador to Ireland, was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representative for the Division of Brand in Western Australia in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. On 25 March 2013, Gray was appointed to the Australian Cabinet as the Minister for Resources and Energy, the Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Small Business. From 2010 until 2013, Gray served as the Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity.
Hartley Gordon James "Harry" Cant was an Australian politician. Born at Mount Magnet, Western Australia, he was educated at state schools and then the Kalgoorlie School of Mines, becoming a miner. He was an official with the Australian Workers' Union. In 1958, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator for Western Australia. He held the seat until 1974, when he retired. Cant died in 1977.
The New South Wales Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) and commonly referred to simply as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ruling party in the state of New South Wales and is led by Chris Minns, who has served concurrently as premier of New South Wales since 2023.
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. Santamaria, the dominant force behind the "Catholic Social Studies Movement" or "the Movement".
Harold Boland was an Australian shearer and trade unionist.
Donald Macdonell was a politician, trade unionist and shearer in New South Wales, Australia.
The Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1911 and 1991. It represented labourers and semi-skilled workers employed in the steel industry and ironworking, and later also the chemical industry.
Tom Nicholson Pearce Dougherty, was an Australian trade union official and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. As National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) from 1944 to 1972, he was one of the most powerful figures in the Australian labor movement and the Labor Party.
The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption was a Royal Commission established by the Government of Australia to inquire into alleged financial irregularities associated with the affairs of trade unions. The Australian Workers Union, Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, Electrical Trades Union, Health Services Union and the Transport Workers Union were named in the terms of reference. The Royal Commission inquired into the activities relating to slush funds and other similar funds and entities established by, or related to, the affairs of these organisations.
Paul Joseph Hugh McDermott is an Australian politician who was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the State Member for Prospect for the Labor Party at the 2015 New South Wales state election. Prior to entering Parliament he had a career as an international lawyer and university academic. Since 2023 he has served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General in the government of Chris Minns.
Cecil Thompson "Charlie" Oliver AM was an Australian trade unionist and politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1948 to 1951, representing the seat of Boulder, and was later prominent in the labour movement in New South Wales as the state secretary (1951–1978) and state president (1980–1985) of the Australian Workers' Union.