Paul Howes

Paul Howes (born 23 August 1981) is the National Secretary of The Australian Workers' Union, a position he has held since the age of 26.^[1] In 2008 Howes was elected as Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions,^[2] and he serves on a number of Government boards.^[3]

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.

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 and Resistance.

He never finished high school, leaving in Year 9.^[4] However by the age of 16, after a "solidarity" trip to Cuba to the World Festival for Youth and Students Howes abandoned far-left politics and joined the Australian Labor Party.^[1]

In an interview^[4] with the The Age newspaper Howes stated that while in Cuba his mind was changed by the reality of what he saw, which contradicted the political beliefs he held at the time:

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 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 ever national official in the history of the union. As AWU National Secretary, Howes is Deputy Chair of AustralianSuper,^[3] one of the largest superannuation trusts in Australia.^[5] He is also a member of the powerful National Executive of the Australian Labor Party. He is 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.

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 Australian federal election, 2010.^[6]

In November 2010 Howes published Confessions of a Faceless Man, his autobiographical analyses of the election and 18 months in Australian politics.^[7][8][9] 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."^[10]

In a speech in February 2014, Howes provoked controversy by arguing the greatest problem with Industrial relations in Australia was the frequent changes to the regulatory framework and he called for a new partnership between business, government and unions to come together to establish a lasting framework which would create a stable industrial relations environment.

Howes lives in Sydney.

References

External links

• Australian Workers' Union
• Paul Howes, Australian Labor

Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by Bill Shorten	National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union 2007 - present	Incumbent

v t e Secretaries of the Australian Workers' Union William Spence Donald Macdonell Tom White Edward Grayndler Clarrie Fallon Beecher Hay Tom Dougherty Frank Mitchell Gill Barr Errol Hodder Michael Forshaw Ian Cambridge Steve Harrison Terry Muscat Bill Shorten Paul Howes

Authority control VIAF: 170867696

Persondata
Name	Howes, Paul
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 August 1981
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death