New Australian Workers Union boss Paul Farrow backs AUKUS

New Australian Workers Union leader Paul Farrow says his union will back the nuclear sub plan as ‘fantastic’ for creating jobs.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow.

New Australian Workers Union leader Paul Farrow has declared his union will push back against Left moves to oppose AUKUS at the ALP national conference, backing the nuclear submarine plan as “fantastic” for creating jobs.

Mr Farrow, who succeeded Daniel Walton as national secretary of the right-wing union, said the AWU started the ALP and the union’s job was to ground the party and cut through “some of the fringe noise that comes through our party from time to time”.

“There are many different groups within our party but some that you would question whether somehow the GPS has taken them to us instead of a greener party,” Mr Farrow said. “We have got to make sure that we continue to be the adults in the room and cut through that noise.”

Mr Farrow, 48, said the AWU supported the AUKUS plan. “People attach the word nuclear propulsion to a submarine and people have got differing views on it,” he said. “Our view is quite strong on it. We should leave matters of national security to the experts in national security.

“We should focus on jobs that are created as a result of these opportunities. These are highly skilled, highly specialised jobs that will be brought to our country as a result of it. It’s fantastic news. Weighing in on the other side of things should be left to the experts.”

He said the Left’s opposition to AUKUS stemmed from a deep-rooted antinuclear sentiment.

“We’re only talking about nuclear-powered submarines and I guess that gets people worried. I think we need to move past that,” he said. “We’re only talking about a form of fuel that powers the submarine. I’m sure there are reasons why the government is headed down that path. Far be it for us to weigh in on what the capabilities of our defence force should or shouldn’t be.”

Mr Farrow said if there was a debate at the national conference over AUKUS, the AWU’s “voice needs to be loud and clear on these issues”.

“We need to make sure that we’re in a position where our voice is powerful enough to cut through so that sensible outcomes are achieved. If it does, hopefully we get to a sensible resolution to it,” he said

He said he would not say the AWU was pro-nuclear, but that the “vast amount of the industries that we represent, especially in heavy industries, are heavily impacted by energy, so when it comes to energy policy in this country, we should be looking at a long-term strategy”.

“The answer for nuclear is, should we be looking at it as an option. I don’t see why we shouldn’t be looking at it. Is it the answer? I don’t know.

“The answer should be a case of economics: whatever stacks up to be the cheapest form, the most reliable form of power. They’re the things we should be looking at. Should we preclude anything from being debated? Absolutely not.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Farrow said he left school at 15 to start an apprenticeship as an aircraft maintenance engineer at the Hawker De Haviland Bankstown Airport, becoming a union delegate in the strongly unionised site at the age of 19. At 29, and after the birth of his first child, he decided on a career change and started work at the AWU.

Declaring the “the two things I will be focused on is growing membership numbers and growing power”, he said a central focus of the union would be the pursuit of wage increases in line with inflation. “With interest rates going up and prices going up everywhere, then it screams for some type of changes when it comes to wage increases. I’ve still got sites involved in industrial action trying to achieve three or four per cent per annum. There is a change required,” he said.

“Fuel prices. Grocery prices. Energy prices. Everybody else seems to have the ability to pass on some type of cost to somebody else except for the worker, who has to absorb every cost that’s passed their way. The only response they have is to try and bargain for better wages.

“We need to see people keeping up with inflation, and I think workers have fallen behind for a long period of time as well … we’re in catch-up mode.”

While the union was generally securing annual four per cent pay rises in enterprise agreements, he said wage increase should ideally be six per cent a year given the latest inflation numbers.

Asked if the union would pursue that level of increase in new agreements, he said: “Yeah, absolutely. We need to. I don’t have a set policy position that says ‘this is what we are walking into every business asking for’. But when I go and ask our members what the key issues are that focus them in the workplace, No. 1 is always a wage increase.”