Kathy Jackson
Encyclopedia
Health Services Union
The Health Services Union is a specialist health union with over 70,000 members working in all areas of healthcare across Australia.The membership of the union includes doctors, nurses and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and radiographers, ambulance officers, clerical and...
of Australia. She is also a Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
.
Jackson has been an official of the Health Services Union's Number Three branch which represents highly skilled health professionals like radiographers
Radiography
Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non-uniformly composed material such as the human body. By using the physical properties of the ray an image can be developed which displays areas of different density and composition....
, physiotherapists, radiation therapists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and social workers since 1992, and is also the State Secretary of that branch. After doubling the size of that branch of the union with thousands of new members, she was elevated to the most senior position within the union, as its national leader in 2008, its first ever female national secretary.http://www.hsu.net.au/news/1201953372_15505.html
In addition to that Jackson has extensive involvement in the financial services industry representing her members' interests as a director of the Health Employees Superannuation Trust of Australia (HESTA), the country's sixth largest industry fund by assets under management
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...
($13 billion as at 2008). Jackson is also a member of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors and the AEW Advisory Board in the United States. AEW Capital Management manages real estate and other investments worth in excess of $50 billion http://www.aew.com/.
Jackson is a graduate of the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and has also studied at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, completing its Trade Union Training Programme in 2004. She also holds a Diploma - Company Director from the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Australian Institute of Company Directors
The Australian Institute of Company Directors is Australia's leading membership body for directors in Australia and the leading Australian not-for-profit corporate governance organisation....
, reflecting her interest in corporate governance.
Kathy is also a senior figure in the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, and is a leading light within its moderate faction Labor Unity aligned with powerbroker Senator David Feeney
David Feeney
David Ian Feeney is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since July 2008.Feeney was born in Adelaide. His father is a immigrant from Northern Ireland. Raised Catholic, he attended Mercedes College, Adelaide before moving to Melbourne, where he attended...
. While at the University of Melbourne, Jackson and Feeney shared the same elected position within its student union.
She has taken high profile positions on a range of issues including corporate and union donations to political campaigns. She told The Australian "Without restrictions on donations and public funding ... we'll end up like the United States with two parties owned by the corporations divided only on lifestyle issues like gay marriage."http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23781067-5013946,00.html
Jackson has promoted a more activist approach in the union peak body, the ACTU. In a confidential paper for her union executive in June 2008, the union leader was critical of the ACTU's leadership for not representing the interests of working people with the federal government in particular.
Jackson has also been occasionally critical of the Victorian Labor government headed by John Brumby
John Brumby
John Mansfield Brumby , is an Australian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became Premier after the resignation of Steve Bracks. He also served as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. He contested his first election...
. During 2007 and 2008, the HSU was embroiled in an enterprise bargaining dispute with the government, where the Health Minister Daniel Andrews
Daniel Andrews
Daniel Michael Andrews is an Australian politician. He is the current state Australian Labor Party leader and Leader of the Opposition in Victoria...
has used legal mechanisms under federal law (which ironically Labor opposed) to restrict the union's industrial action. Jackson said at the time "It's also time that Mr Brumby wakes up and realises that Victorians did not endorse the use of WorkChoices for use against anyone, let alone their health workers. We will bargain lawfully, but we will not lie down."
In August 2011 Jackson the national secretary of the Health Services Union alleged that the credit card issued to former national secretary Craig Thomson had been used for unlawful purposes. Mr Thompson is currently a member of the minority Federal Labor Government and sitting member of the NSW seat of Dobell. The allegations of credit card fraud and other alleged fraud within the HSU are currently under investigation by the NSW police, who have created a task force to investigate the matter, after further evidence was provided by Jackson.