Kathy Jackson (born Kathy Koukouvaos)[1] is a prominent Australian union leader and the National Secretary of the Health Services Union of Australia. She is also a Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
Jackson has been an official of the Health Services Union's Number Three branch which represents highly skilled health professionals like radiographers, physiotherapists, radiation therapists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and social workers since 1992, and is also the State Secretary of that branch. After doubling the size of that branch of the union with thousands of new members, she was elevated to the most senior position within the union, as its national leader in 2008, its first ever female national secretary.[1]
In addition to that Jackson has extensive involvement in the financial services industry representing her members' interests as a director of the Health Employees Superannuation Trust of Australia (HESTA), the country's sixth largest industry fund by assets under management ($13 billion as at 2008). Jackson is also a member of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors and the AEW Advisory Board in the United States. AEW Capital Management manages real estate and other investments worth in excess of $50 billion [2].
Jackson is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and has also studied at Harvard University, completing its Trade Union Training Programme in 2004. She also holds a Diploma - Company Director from the Australian Institute of Company Directors, reflecting her interest in corporate governance.
Kathy is also a senior figure in the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, and is a leading light within its moderate faction Labor Unity aligned with powerbroker Senator David Feeney. While at the University of Melbourne, Jackson and Feeney shared the same elected position within its student union.
She has taken high profile positions on a range of issues including corporate and union donations to political campaigns. She told The Australian "Without restrictions on donations and public funding ... we'll end up like the United States with two parties owned by the corporations divided only on lifestyle issues like gay marriage."[3]
Jackson has promoted a more activist approach in the union peak body, the ACTU. In a confidential paper for her union executive in June 2008, the union leader was critical of the ACTU's leadership for not representing the interests of working people with the federal government in particular.
Jackson has also been occasionally critical of the Victorian Labor government headed by John Brumby. During 2007 and 2008, the HSU was embroiled in an enterprise bargaining dispute with the government, where the Health Minister Daniel Andrews has used legal mechanisms under federal law (which ironically Labor opposed) to restrict the union's industrial action. Jackson said at the time "It's also time that Mr Brumby wakes up and realises that Victorians did not endorse the use of WorkChoices for use against anyone, let alone their health workers. We will bargain lawfully, but we will not lie down."
In August 2011 Jackson the national secretary of the Health Services Union alleged that the credit card issued to former national secretary Craig Thomson had been used for unlawful purposes. Mr Thompson is currently a member of the minority Federal Labor Government and sitting member of the NSW seat of Dobell. The allegations of credit card fraud and other alleged fraud within the HSU are currently under investigation by the NSW police, who have created a task force to investigate the matter, after further evidence was provided by Jackson.[2]