Rat Ahoy!!!!


Like rats from a sinking ship?
AMM 28.06.20.


Remember the the great Labor asset and staunch unionist, Paul Howes?

Paul dropped off the Labor stage about four years ago from his role as Australian Workers Union national secretary.

His later days of service at times seemed conflicted with strands of mild conservatism.

But Labor heavies are branded for life and ‘postpartum’ does not come easy—ask Mark Latham.

Regardless, Mr Howes might have seen that one day the party would cause self-harm via the path it was so doggedly pursuing—far removed from its founding tenets.

Paul’s probable beliefs might be born out by the recent and continuing very public ‘unpacking’ of Labor’s dirty underwear?

Former Australian Workers Union national secretary-turned KPMG partner Paul Howes has quit the Australian Labor Party,

describing it as “liberating” not to be constrained in his views by an “ideological framework”.

In a revealing interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Howes lauded ACTU secretary Sally McManus for her handling of the COVID-19 crisis but warned “ugly elements are still there” in the union movement that were growing “in their cancerous ways”.


Former union stalwart Paul Howes hits Labor dogma for six
Source: Damon Kitney, News Corp

He said he resigned his ALP membership four years ago, feeling no ill-will towards the party that had been a big part of his life for decades.

“As I have evolved as a person, I like the freedom of looking at ­issues on an issue-by-issue basis,” he said. “I like not being constrained by an ideological framework. I now find myself swinging in agreement and disagreement with people. It is quite liberating to have that.

“I still view myself as a progressive who believes in progressive causes — but unconstrained by ideological parameters and not having to be blindly partisan on the basis of one’s allegiances.”

Mr Howes declined to comment on the latest branch-stacking scandal that has engulfed the Labor Party’s Victorian division.

This week marked a decade since Mr Howes was one of the “faceless men” of the ALP credited with initiating the leadership coup that toppled Kevin Rudd and installed Julia Gillard as the nation’s first female prime minister.

In 2014, Mr Howes ended his 11-year career at the AWU, and began working for KPMG.

He said he retained friends in the labor movement and had even become closer to some since he joined KPMG. “But my social circles have changed. The last day I went to Trades Hall was the day I resigned,’’ he said.



https://morningmail.org/like-rats-from-a-sinking-ship/#more-118148