General ASU News

How a once-off street party became an iconic annual event Today, everyone acknowledges the iconic status of the annual Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras as both a key Australian cultural and political event, even its opponents admit this. Bitterly. However, few know the origins of the event. Even fewer…

Last week, high level politicians and corporate leaders across the world have been named in yet another series of tax related leaks, this time from the Bahamas, an infamous tax haven. >> Click here to read this on the PSI website Neelie Kroes, former EU Commissioner for Competition, has come…

In a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) finds that there is no evidence that the Turnbull Government’s proposed corporate tax cuts will generate job growth or improve the living standards of Australians to the level the government, or business groups…

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…

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…

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…

The possibility that the Malcolm Turnbull may yet cling to power shouldn’t hide the fact that the results of this election represent a massive repudiation of his Government’s destructive policies over the past three years. For more than 12 months, union members nationwide have campaigned for a restoration of funding…