Brian Howe

Who is Brian Howe?

Brian Leslie Howe, AO is a former Australian politician. He was Deputy Prime Minister in the Labor government of Paul Keating from 1991 to 1995.

Howe was born in Melbourne. He spent his early childhood in the suburb of Malvern and was educated at Melbourne High School and the University of Melbourne. He later studied theology in Chicago and then returned to Australia. He served as a minister with the Methodist Church and the Uniting Church in various parts of Victoria – Morwell, Eltham and Fitzroy.

Howe was elected to the House of Representatives in 1977 representing the northern Melbourne metropolitan electoral Division of Batman. He defeated the incumbent Horrie Garrick for Labor preselection in a hard-fought contest. A member of the Socialist Left faction of the Labor Party, he was Minister for Defence Support in the government of Bob Hawke from 1983. In 1984 he became Minister for Social Security and carried out various radical reforms to Australia's welfare system.

Howe appeared to face significant opposition within his electorate in 1988, when up to 60 members of the Greek Westgarth branch of the ALP defected to join the Australian Democrats. One of the defectors, tram-conductor George Gogas, contested Batman as a Democrat candidate in 1990, but polled only 12.9 per cent of the vote.