Bill Shorten Makes his move

[Proud Pies]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20012014-662,00.html

Shorten makes a move

John Masanauskas

August 04, 2006 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

PROMINENT unionist Bill Shorten has stepped down from a union role as he prepares for next year's federal election.
Mr Shorten, who shot to national prominence during the Beaconsfield mine rescue, has quit as state secretary of the Australian Workers Union.

The man some tout as a future prime minister expects to enter Parliament at the next poll as the Labor member for Maribyrnong.

He will keep his position as national AWU secretary.

Mr Shorten's replacement as state secretary is Lebanese migrant Cesar Melhem, who served with Lebanese forces during battles with the Israeli army in the 1980s.

Mr Melhem recently visited his homeland and left the country just hours before the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted.

"The country was fully rebuilt; you couldn't see any scars from the previous war," he said.

"The country was just full of life."

Mr Melhem, a Christian, said Hezbollah deserved to be attacked, but he believed Israel had made a strategic mistake by going too far.

"They're going to make it a bit difficult to achieve the aim to disarm Hezbollah," he said.

Mr Melhem, 41, migrated to Australia in 1988 and has been a full-time union official since 1990, includ-

ing the last five years as assistant state secretary.

[David]

Nice to see Melhem isn't just taking a one sided view to the issue. As for Shorten, he's just about guaranteed labour party leadership at one point isn't he?