Laurie Short

{{Short description|Australian trade unionist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} '''Laurence Elwyn Short''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO|OBE}} (15 December 1915 – 24 March 2009) was an Australian trade union leader and leading figure in the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Short was the national secretary of the Federated Ironworkers' Association (FIA), now part of the Australian Workers' Union, from 1951 to 1982.<ref name="TheAustralian">{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25239802-12377,00.html|title=Union icon Laurie Short dies|date=25 March 2009|work=The Australian|accessdate=2009-03-25}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==Biography== thumb|Short in his office, circa 1953. Short at first supported the idea of communism in Australia, but then rejected communism and then was an important anti-communist union leader.<ref name="TheAge">{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/unionist-kept-labor-intact-20090325-9aje.html?page=-1|last=Howes|first=Paul|title=Unionist kept Labor intact|date=26 March 2009|work=The Age|accessdate=2012-07-18}}</ref> Short ran against Ernest "Ernie" Thornton, a member of the Communist Party of Australia, in the 1949 FIA elections — Thornton at first claimed victory, but later his election was ruled invalid, and Short declared the winner.<ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Robert |last=Murray |title=Ernest Thornton (1907–1969) |id2=thornton-ernest-11854 |year=2002 |volume=16 |access-date=30 August 2025}}</ref> Short was a non-Catholic ally of B. A. Santamaria's Catholic Social Studies Movement,<ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=ross-lloyd-robert-maxwell-15927 |title=Lloyd Robert Maxwell Ross (1901–1987) |first=Michael |last=Easson |year=2012 |volume=18 |access-date=30 August 2025}}</ref> but was seen as playing a key role in preventing the New South Wales branch of the ALP from splitting along sectarian lines in the Australian Labor Party split of 1955.<ref name="TheAustralian" />

==Honours == He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1971<ref>{{cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1109692|title=SHORT, Laurence Edwin (OBE)|work=It's An Honour|publisher=Australian Government|accessdate=2009-03-25}}</ref> by John Gorton's Liberal-Country Party Government, and this was followed in 1980 by his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/881855|title=SHORT, Laurence Edwin (AO)|work=It's An Honour|publisher=Australian Government|accessdate=2009-03-25}}</ref> by Malcolm Fraser.

==Personal life == He married artist Nancy Borlase in 1941 and was father to journalist Susanna Short.<ref name="TheAustralian" /><ref name="Brown">{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-wife-and-mother/2009/03/17/1237054815915.html|title=Portrait of the artist as a wife and mother|last=Brown|first=Malcolm|date=18 March 2009|work=The Age|accessdate=2009-03-25}}</ref> Nancy died in 2002.

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book|last=Short|first=Susanna|title=Laurie Short: A Political Life|date=1992|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=Sydney|isbn=1-86373-188-1}} See also summary at [http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Shortsummary.html]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Laurie}} Category:1915 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Australian trade unionists Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire