More failures in union leadership
As published in Spectator Australia - June 30, 2025
Australian workers face a pattern of betrayal from union leaders.
This week, the Victorian branch of the Health Services Union was placed into administration, with its Secretary and her partner facing Fair Work Commission allegations of misappropriating funds. Meanwhile, a former official of the South Australian Branch of the CFMEU was banned by the union’s administrator for over four years, following an investigation into the expenditure of union funds.
Trade union leadership has bled trust dry.
No wonder Australian workers are rejecting joining unions. Only 7.9 per cent of private-sector workers and 13.1 per cent of Australia’s overall workforce are union members, a stark rejection of these self-serving associations.
With such woeful numbers, we must reject the narrative that unions represent Australian workers. They’ve got nothing to do with 87 per cent of us, and they treat the other 13 per cent very badly.
Despite these numbers, Australia has arrived at an unsustainable position where union leaders enjoy unparalleled access to ALP governments.
Reports indicate that workers at Fire Rescue Victoria have passed a vote of no confidence in their Commissioner and key executives. The United Firefighters Union Secretary has called for the Commissioner and executives to step down so Fire Rescue Victoria employees ‘can have leaders who are on their side’.
Any organisation that gives into union demands about senior appointments will end up in a mess. The Victorian government should immediately reject the UFU calls and reaffirm that the government decides who is appointed to the top jobs and that leadership is not there to make union officials happy.
Instead, we have agendas that prop up union relevance with only passing interest in the impacts on business viability and productivity.
Australia needs a system that reflects the true position of union representation. Freedom to select agreement types, freedom to not join a union, and the freedom to work flexibly as a casual, contractor, labour hire, or gig worker must be central to our workplace relations system.
John Lloyd PSM is a senior research fellow at the H.R. Nicholls Society
