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] He is also Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
[2] and 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.[
citation needed] However by the age of 16 Howes abandoned far-left politics and joined the
Australian Labor Party.
[1]
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 a Director of AustralianSuper,
[3] one of the largest superannuation trusts in Australia.
[4] He is also a member of the powerful National Executive of the
Australian Labor Party.
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, he was reelected unopposed for a four year term as AWU National Secretary. 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.
[5] Others reported to have been influential, in addition to Howes in 2010, include Labor 'powerbrokers':
Mark Arbib,
Don Farrell,
David Feeney and former AWU secretary Bill Shorten.
[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]
Howes lives in
Sydney, is married to Lucy,
[11] and has three children.
[1]