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Today the Productivity Commission has released its preliminary findings report about what vital Australian human services it wants governments to look at privatising. It does not bring good news for ASU members working at the frontline in grant based family and community services like alcohol and drug services, community based…

The long-standing ASU position on marriage rights for LGBTIQ people is that it’s simply a matter of equality, and therefore we support changes to the relevant laws to ensure the LGBTIQ community has access to marriage on an equal basis with non-LGBTIQ Australians. Today we are adding our opposition to…

Today, 8 September 2016, is Equal Pay Day; a day to reflect on the unacceptable state of the gender pay gap and the fact that women in work are significantly worse off than men in Australia. September 8 is significant this year because it marks the point when women's earnings…

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was finalised back in February, but individual national parliaments all need to vote up the deal before it can take effect, so we still have time to stop the TPP. We have many concerns, most particularly around the undermining of workers' rights and…

Statement from Ged Kearney, President, ACTU: No Australian should be forced to live below the poverty line. For most people being unemployed is something they neither seek nor like to endure. But for many Australians, young and old, it is a harsh reality. Governments have a responsibility to help those…

A new report from the Inclusive Prosperity Commission exposes the inequality of the Turnbull’s Government’s obsession with trickle-down economics. The expert authors of the report "Inequality: The facts and figures" have found that rising inequality in Australia is having a destabilising effect on the economy. This report sits alongside global…

Today’s dual ABS releases on Average Weekly Earnings and the snapshot Labour Force data show that Australian workers continue to be affected by a two-pronged dampener on their living standards. The ABS data reveals: While the headline unemployment figure fell 0.1% to 5.7% in July, this masks the continuing disturbing…

The ACTU Executive has adopted a resolution authorising all means at the organisations disposal to be mobilised against the Turnbull Government’s racially discriminatory Community Development Program (CDP). The resolution will kick-start exploration of legal and legislative challenges to the program, as well as the mobilisation of campaign resources. The ACTU…

The ACTU, including Secretary Dave Oliver and Indigenous Officer Kara Keys, joined with affiliate unions and local Indigenous people in Darwin this morning to draw attention to the ongoing fight for wage justice for Indigenous Australians. The ACTU is in Darwin this week for its National Executive meeting as a…

The impact on ordinary Australians of privatising essential public assets and services will be examined in a People’s Inquiry launched today by the global union Public Services International (PSI), of which the ASU is an affiliate. The People’s Inquiry into Privatisation will examine in detail community concerns, including those recently…