United magazine Summer 2019

PAUL REID WINS TOP AWARD
PAUL WINS PRESTIGIOUS MCKELL AWARD FOR AN OUTSTANDING
CONTRIBUTION TO THE LABOR PARTY AND HIS LOCAL COMMUNITY
A GREAT HONOUR:
From left to right:
Senator Tony Sheldon,
Kellie Gale, MLC Mark
Buttigieg, Canterbury
Bankstown Councillor
Rachelle Harika, member
for Coogee Marjorie
O’Neill, USU General
Secretary Graeme Kelly,
Canterbury councillor
Clare Raffan, Paul Reid,
member for Canterbury
Sophie Cotsis, Wayne
Moody, Bill Kritharas
and Saree Boutros.
The USU is very proud to announce that on 9th
October, long time MEU/USU Life Member, Paul
Reid was the recipient of a McKell Award at the 20th
Annual NSW Labor Rank and File McKell Dinner.
These Awards were developed to thank members who
have excelled in their service to the ALP and their
local community and for their meritorious service.
Hon. Mark Robert BUTTIGIEG, MLC paid this
tribute to Paul Reid in the NSW Parliament
I make a special mention of my great friend and colleague and
United Services Union stalwart, Paul Reid, who recently was
awarded the McKell Award by the New South Wales ALP for
outstanding services to the party. Last week I was privileged
to have been invited to be a guest at his table along with his
partner and Canterbury councillor Clare Raffan, Senator Tony
Sheldon, member for Coogee Ms Marjorie O’Neill, United
Services Union General Secretary Graeme Kelly, Kellie Gale,
member for Canterbury Sophie Cotsis, Bill Kritharas, Rachelle
Harika and Saree Boutros.
The McKell Award is a prestigious and noteworthy award.
Members must be nominated by several other ALP members
and there was an overwhelming number of worthy nominations
in this instance. Paul’s nomination was supported by
Graeme Kelly, the General Secretary of the United Services
Union [USU], and Sophie Cotsis, the member for Canterbury
and shadow Minister for better public services. I could not
imagine a more worthy recipient of the McKell Award. Paul is
honest, loyal, a true believer and a tireless campaigner for the
party. He is an example of the kind of person that the Labor
Party should recognise and should be supporting and promoting
for the roles that they play within the party.
He advances the party’s collective values and he is involved
Paul Reid receiving the
McKell Award from Jodi
McKay and Mark Lennon
for the right reasons: to progress the cause of working people,
not for his own self-interest but for the good of the movement.
Paul is a proud and dedicated member of the USU. He
became an elected Municipal Employees Union delegate in
1984 prior to the unions merging and he has been a delegate
to the union for over 18 years. Paul has been an ALP member
for 36 years, first joining the Pyrmont-Ultimo branch. He
founded the Belfield-Campsie North branch in 2017 and still
serves as its branch secretary.
Paul has held the positions of branch president, branch secretary,
state and federal electoral council delegate, chair of organising,
recruitment and training policy committee, member
of building sustainable communities policy committee, USU
delegate to ALP State conference and USU conference whip
and proxy member of ALP administrative committee. Labor
members of Parliament value Paul’s abundance of knowledge
and his indispensable insight into community issues. Paul has
been tireless in his dedication to the union movement and
the ALP. I am lucky to call Paul one of my great comrades in
the movement and I am a better person for having known this
great human being. I pay tribute to Paul Reid, recipient of the
prestigious McKell Award, and thank him for his services to
the Australian Labor Party.
6 • United Summer 2019