Geoffrey Kemp Howard (born 8 November 1955) is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

, representing

Ballarat East Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council (see below). The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballara ...

from 1999 to 2014, and

Buninyong Buninyong is a town 11 km from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. Buninyong was proclaimed a town on 27 June 1851 on the same day as Winchelsea, Portarlington, L ...

from 2014 to 2018.

Life and work

Howard was born at

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

, Victoria, and attended public schools in Belmont and Geelong. He received a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1977 from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and a

Graduate Diploma of Education The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overview The diploma can build on ...

in 1979 from State College Rusden. He became a secondary school teacher at

Kaniva Kaniva is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Western Highway, north of Little Desert National Park, in the Shire of West Wimmera local government area. It is located roughly east of the South Australian border and east of Bo ...

in 1980, moving to

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

in 1982. He joined the Labor Party in 1987, and was elected to Ballarat City Council in 1989. He was mayor in 1993 and 1994, but left the council in 1994, only to return in 1996. Howard left the council in 1999 after he was preselected as the Labor candidate for the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

-held seat of

prior to the 1999 state election. At the election, Howard defeated sitting MP

Barry Traynor Barry Edward Traynor (born 9 December 1946) is an Australian former politician. He was born in Ararat and attended Ararat High School before working as a bank teller from 1964 to 1965. In 1966 he joined the Police Force, where he remained unti ...

. He was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment in 1999, moving to Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture in 2002. In 2006, he lost his parliamentary secretary position, and became chair of the Education and Training Committee.

References

External links

Parliamentary voting record of Geoff Howard at Victorian Parliament Tracker
1955 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-Victoria-MP-stub