I hesitated to post because some people think it is off topic, but I do (hope not!!) that it has significance. If only as background. SP would know more. My guess is he thought he was too far off the PM's job with too many in front of him. At least the Odious Wirth won't (again hopefully not) be 1st 'lady'. I think I'd even rather Joyce in that role! I don't think Howes is a fool, probably his 'anti AWU' speech was feathering a post Union nest rather than anything untoward politically. I _really_really_ hope he and worthless leave QF alone!!
AWU?s Paul Howes calls it quits
JOE ASTON AND PHILLIP COOREY
The national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Paul Howes, is expected to quit the union movement on Monday, robbing Labor of one its *rising stars and the union movement of a strong advocate for reform.
The union leader has been quietly preparing senior Labor Party and ACTU figures for his resignation, according to ALP sources close to the move.
It is not known what Mr Howes will do next, although he is marrying *Qantas executive Olivia Wirth in April. Mr Howes, who is scheduled to attend an AWU national executive meeting in Perth on Monday, did not respond to The Australian Financial Review’s questions on Sunday.
The Financial Review has been told he had been seeking a job in the corporate sector but it is understood Mr Howes has no immediate plans.
His departure from the trade union movement, with which he has been associated since 1999, is not regarded by those close to him as the end of his *political aspirations.
Only 32 years old, Mr Howes has plenty of time before he needs to enter federal Parliament, should he so wish.
After an aborted tilt at the Senate last year, he had fixed his sights over the longer term on a lower house seat.
Mr Howes replaced Bill Shorten at the helm of the AWU in 2007, when Mr Shorten, now Opposition Leader, entered Parliament.
The AWU’s assistant national secretary, Scott McDine, is expected to succeed Mr Howes as national secretary of the 135,000-member union.
Mr Howes has endured a gruelling past few years and people close to him said he was looking for a change.
It is understood that he has been frustrated at the labour movement’s response to his calls for modernisation.
When Bob Carr quit the Senate *following Labor’s election loss last year, Mr Howes, a key figure in the NSW Right, lost a fight to take the spot. His support for gay marriage and his closeness to the Jewish lobby was used against him internally.
This followed a torrid period for the so-called faceless man who remained loyal to former prime minister Julia *Gillard throughout her leadership *skirmishes with Kevin Rudd.
AWU TARGET OF COMMISSION
When Mr Shorten abandoned Ms Gillard in June last year to help reinstall Mr Rudd as Labor leader and prime minister, relations between Mr Shorten and Mr Howes cooled significantly.
His departure will leave the labour movement without one of its strongest and most outspoken voices.
Ms Wirth also suffered professionally because of her association with Mr Howes, losing her government relations role with Qantas and moving to a senior marketing and branding role for the airline.
Mr Howes leaves the labour movement as the Abbott government is mounting a full-scale assault on trade unions with its royal commission into union corruption.
The AWU is a specific target of the commission because of a slush fund operated by a former boyfriend of Ms Gillard’s more than two decades ago.
Mr Howes has been a fierce critic and opponent of corruption during his years in the movement.
Last year, he called on Labor to support laws proposed by Tony Abbott to bring penalties for corrupt union bosses into line with those of corrupt corporate executives.
Mr Howes is set to shed all his political duties.
It is likely he will resign his position on the Labor Party’s national executive and will step down as vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. He has also been one of the more progressive thinkers on policy and labour movement reform.
In his speech to the National Press Club in February, he called for a “grand compact” between business and unions. But he was criticised heavily by many on his own side, moreover because of his excoriation of both side of politics for the policy see-saw which industrial relations policy has become. He chipped those in Labor for decrying every Coalition policy utterance as WorkChoices and acknowledged the current Fair Work Act had resulted in unsustainable wages growth in some sectors, such as offshore oil and gas.
His departure comes more as a shock given the speech was regarded as Mr Howes setting sights politically as a reformer. He is a non-executive director and deputy chairman of the country’s largest industry superannuation fund AustralianSuper.
Mr Howes writes a regular column for the Financial Review.
Re the Jet* leases. I am 'convinced' Qf are paying for the leases (as I guess most are) but I am equally certain that Qf will have a large array of possibilities for answering Sen Xen's 'on notice' question as to how much the storage/leasing is costing. I can't see themselves being dumb enough to leave a simple thing like that open to hang them. They have not closed any doors on that answer with their 'answers' so far... I was stunned at Joyce's audacity to say 'he didn't know' when clearly the CEO should be on top of such painful losses and the reasons they are worth enduring. It was (as usual) a cunning dance around the topic by minions and Joyce. A sickening display of why the place is in the state it is.