Geoff Howard

Geoffrey Kemp "Geoff" Howard (born 8 November 1955) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1999, representing Ballarat East.

Howard was born at Geelong, Victoria, and attended public schools in Belmont and Geelong. He received a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1977 from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma of Education in 1979 from State College Rusden. He became a secondary school teacher at Kaniva from 1980–82, moving to Ballarat in 1982. He joined the Australian Labor Party in 1987, and was elected to Ballarat City Council in 1989. He was mayor from 1993–94 but left the council in 1994, only to return in 1996.^[1]

Howard left the council in 1999 after he was preselected as the Labor candidate for the Liberal-held seat of Ballarat East prior to the 1999 state election. Howard defeated sitting MP Barry Traynor to win the seat, and has held it since. He was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment in 1999, moving to Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture in 2002. In 2006 he lost his parliamentary secretary position, and is currently the Chair of the Education and Training Committee.^[1]

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