Brian Howe (politician) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Reverend and The Honourable Brian Howe AO
Howe in 1994
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
In office 3 June 1991 – 20 June 1995
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke Paul Keating
Preceded by	Paul Keating
Succeeded by	Kim Beazley
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party
In office 3 June 1991 – 20 June 1995
Leader	Bob Hawke Paul Keating
Preceded by	Paul Keating
Succeeded by	Kim Beazley
Minister for Regional Development
In office 25 March 1994 – 11 March 1996
Prime Minister	Paul Keating
Preceded by	Peter Cook
Succeeded by	John Sharp
Minister for Local Government
In office 24 March 1993 – 25 March 1994
Prime Minister	Paul Keating
Preceded by	David Simmons
Succeeded by	Warwick Smith
Minister for Housing
In office 7 May 1990 – 11 March 1996
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke Paul Keating
Preceded by	Peter Staples
Succeeded by	Tanya Plibersek (2007)
Minister for Community Services
In office 4 April 1990 – 25 March 1994
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke Paul Keating
Preceded by	Neal Blewett
Succeeded by	Carmen Lawrence
Minister for Health
In office 4 April 1990 – 24 March 1993
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke Paul Keating
Preceded by	Neal Blewett
Succeeded by	Graham Richardson
Minister for Social Security
In office 13 December 1984 – 4 April 1990
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Don Grimes
Succeeded by	Graham Richardson
Minister for Defence Support
In office 11 March 1983 – 13 December 1984
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Ian Viner
Member of the Australian Parliament for Batman
In office 10 December 1977 – 29 January 1996
Preceded by	Horrie Garrick
Succeeded by	Martin Ferguson
Personal details
Born	(1936-01-28) 28 January 1936 (age 89) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse	Renate Howe
Alma mater	University of Melbourne
Occupation	Politician, Christian minister

Brian Leslie Howe (born 28 January 1936) is a retired Australian politician and a minister in the Uniting Church. He was the eighth Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and the deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1991 to 1995. He served under Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. Brian Howe was a government minister for many years, from 1983 to 1996. He was also a member of the Australian House of Representatives (a part of the Australian Parliament) from 1977 to 1996. He represented the area called the Division of Batman in Victoria.

Early Life and Community Work

Brian Howe was born in Melbourne, Australia. He grew up in a suburb called Malvern. He went to Melbourne High School. After school, he studied at the University of Melbourne. He earned a degree in arts and a diploma in criminology.

Later, he moved to the United States to study at a seminary in Chicago. From 1961 to 1969, Howe was a minister at a church in Fitzroy. At the same time, he taught sociology part-time. He is still an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia.

In the early 1970s, Brian Howe helped start the Centre for Urban Research and Action (CURA). This group focused on research and taking action to help communities. He got the idea from his time studying in Chicago, where he was involved in civil rights and anti-poverty movements. CURA worked on important issues in inner Melbourne. These included helping people without homes and stopping old houses from being knocked down for new buildings. They also fought against new freeways and supported the rights of renters. The group helped different ethnic groups and worked to provide social services.

Political Career

Brian Howe was elected to the Australian House of Representatives in the 1977 federal election. He represented the Division of Batman in northern Melbourne. He was part of the Labor Party.

In 1983, Brian Howe became the Minister for Defence Support in the government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. In 1984, he became the Minister for Social Security. In this role, he made many important changes to Australia's welfare system.

After the 1990 election, Howe was appointed Minister for Community Services and Health. In 1991, when Paul Keating left his role, Brian Howe was chosen as the deputy leader of the Labor Party. He then became the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

Brian Howe continued as Deputy Prime Minister when Paul Keating became Prime Minister. In December 1991, he became the Minister for Health, Housing, and Community Services. In 1993, he stopped being the Minister for Health. In June 1995, he resigned as Deputy Prime Minister. Kim Beazley took over his role. Brian Howe remained in Parliament and as a minister until the 1996 election.

Towards the end of his time as Deputy Prime Minister, there was talk that Carmen Lawrence might become his successor. She was very popular at the time. However, she faced some challenges, and Kim Beazley was eventually chosen.

Key Contributions as Minister

Brian Howe was a very active minister. He cared deeply about social justice, which means making sure everyone in society is treated fairly. During his time in office, he made big changes in areas like social security, disability support, health, and housing.

Social Security Reforms

In 1986, Brian Howe started a review of the social security system. This led to major changes to how welfare was managed. Some of the most important changes were:

• Helping people find jobs and become less reliant on welfare, especially through education and training.
• Making sure benefits increased with the cost of living.
• Checking and improving all programs regularly.
• Removing rules that depended on a person's gender for payments.
• Making payments simpler and paid every two weeks.

New important payments were also introduced:

• Family Allowance Supplement: This brought together all payments for children, offering much higher amounts than before. It also included rent assistance when needed.
• Jobsearch and Newstart: These replaced unemployment benefits. They required people to regularly show they were looking for work.

Disability Policy

As Minister for Community Services from 1990 to 1994, Brian Howe changed how disability policy worked. He wanted to help people with disabilities get jobs and stay in the workforce. He also worked to protect their rights and give them chances to be part of wider society.

In 1991, Brian Howe was in charge of the Disability Reform Package. This package changed how the government supported people with disabilities financially. It encouraged them to join the workforce. It focused on "open employment," which means helping disabled people find jobs in regular workplaces. Special services were created to help them find and keep jobs.

In 1991, the first Commonwealth State Disability Agreement was made. This agreement made it clear which government (federal or state) was responsible for different services. The federal government took care of income support and employment services. State and territory governments were responsible for housing and other support services. This agreement helped create a way to improve disability policy over time.

Howe also introduced the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. This law made it illegal to treat people unfairly because of a disability. It helped promote equal rights, opportunities, and access for people with disabilities. The Act also created a Disability Discrimination Commissioner to help enforce these rights.

In 1994, the Commonwealth Disability Strategy was put in place. This was a ten-year plan for government departments to remove barriers and stop discrimination in jobs and services.

Health Initiatives

In health policy, Brian Howe started the National Mental Health Strategy. This included a mental health policy in 1992 and provided money to put it into action.

He also helped create the Commonwealth Dental Scheme. This scheme provided free dental care for adults who had financial difficulties, starting in 1994. However, this program was stopped in 1997 by a later government.

Housing and Urban Policy

Brian Howe was interested in how where people lived affected their lives. He supported the idea that people living on the edges of cities might be poorer and have less access to services.

His main new idea in urban development was the Building Better Cities Programme (BBC). This was the first time the federal government had invested in urban development in a long time. The government provided a lot of money for projects that met its urban goals. From 1991, state and local governments could suggest projects. The program supported projects like redeveloping city areas, building and fixing housing, and improving railways and transport. It also helped with new water systems and developing unused government land. This program was stopped in 1996 by the new government.

In 1992, Howe also started Australia's first Housing Strategy. This strategy led to the creation of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute in 1993, which is still working today.

Later Life

After leaving Parliament, Brian Howe became a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. He then became a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He taught students, worked on research, and wrote several books and articles. He also organized big international conferences in Melbourne about how job markets were changing and what that meant for Australia's social policies.

In 2012, he led an independent inquiry into insecure work in Australia. He spoke to the media and gave talks about this important issue.

In 2017, Brian Howe and his wife Renata were interviewed for a documentary podcast. They talked about their early years of activism in the 1960s.

He has also served on the boards of several important organizations. These include the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria. He helped start the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. He was also chairman of the Victorian Disability Housing Trust and Housing Choices Australia, which provides community housing.

Honours and Awards

Brian Howe has received several important honours for his work. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2001. In 2008, he was promoted to Officer level (AO) in the same order. In 2015, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sydney.