Stephen Shaw

The life of a union delegate is a varied thing. At times the confessor of colleagues, sometimes the confidante of bosses, but always the protein between the carbohydrates.

Stephen Shaw decided earlier this year that 19 years at Radio Australia on top of 16 years at 3AW was enough, and took early retirement.
It was the first time Steve has taken rather than given. There were few years in Steve’s time at Radio Australia when he was not either the house committee secretary or president. There were no years when he was not the voice of sound reason.
 
Steve joined Radio Australia at the time the ABC decided to phase out news announcers and introduce journalist readers. It heralded a turbulent time in the organisation, taking in the first general strike (over a precipitous move to close the French Pacific service – ironically restored this month), through umpteen restructures and numerous physical moves.

Steve attended the farewell functions of several Radio Australia heads... Peter (of the seersucker suit) Barnett, Richard (piano man) Broinowski and Derek (he’ll stop shouting in a minute) White.
 
Fortunately he stayed on long enough to see Radio Australia through the dark times and emerge once again as a force in regional broadcasting. The working conditions enjoyed by journalists at Radio Australia now result in no small part from the effort put in by Steve in the past.
 
By John Westland