Just months out from the Victorian state election, Labor Premier Ben Carroll has sensationally moved to shut down unions which refuse to fund Labor political campaigning.
In a bill introduced to the State Parliament this week, the government intends to outlaw the Red Union from operating in the state.
The Red Union has risen to prominence in recent years, and now represents tens of thousands of frontline workers across the country – offering an apolitical and affordable alternative to Labor Party-aligned unions.
The sensational attack in the Associations Incorporation Reform Amendment Bill 2026 comes amid the rapid growth of the patriotic, non-Left-wing unions across the state, particularly within the Nurses Professional Association of Australia (NPAA) – a rival to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF).
The bill and subsequent media release from the government claims the Red Union is ‘fake’ and a ‘scam’, despite the fact they are currently negotiating several enterprise agreements, including the ongoing teachers’ agreements – led by the Teachers Professional Association of Australia (TPAA).
The TPAA has been demanding widespread reform to the education system and has frequently clashed with the government – including Ben Carroll when he was Minister for Education – over their unwillingness to slash the bloated education bureaucracy which is absorbing billions in funding and ripping away autonomy from local schools.
The TPAA is one of many alternative unions under the Red Union banner which have made a name for themselves by providing a superior quality of service to their rivals. It’s because they don’t fund Labor’s political and social campaigns that they are able to provide greater support at a lower cost to their members.
But looking beyond the Red Union for one moment, the ramifications of this bill go to the heart of our democratic freedoms. If competition is prohibited, then there is a legislated monopoly. That is precisely what Labor is trying to achieve. It is our view that they want to impose a monopoly of their own – a monopoly on the working class.
So instead of looking inward and reflecting on why workers feel the need to set up alternatives to their unions, Labor would rather take away their right to do so.
Instead of listening to the plight of the working class, Premier Carroll would sooner dictate exactly who they can associate with – the one Labor Party-aligned union.
All this from the party that claims to hate the supermarket and airline duopolies…
This blatant attack on freedom of association has come at the behest of the Victorian Trades Hall, which responded to the government’s Soviet-style union shut down with a one-word statement: ‘Good.’
The pioneers of the union movement would be ashamed at what Trades Hall has become. From the proud voice of Australian workers, to a corrupt, establishment body which crushes their dissent.
One thing is certain: Labor can no longer claim to be the party of the worker. For their own electoral benefit, they have chosen to strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their rights.
They’ve also put nurses and teachers in the same category as Neo-Nazis and terrorists.
That’s right. This bill is actually a mini omnibus bill which seeks to wedge its political opponents by lumping the shutdown of Red Union in with designated hate groups and terrorists.
It is a cynical political tactic as old as time itself, but the early signs are that it won’t work. The Opposition and crossbench MLCs are increasingly emboldened to fight this legislation, as it undermines our fundamental democratic rights.
It’s a bill which is designed to ensure that only one government-approved union can represent workers – no matter how poorly they do it, and how abusively they spend their members’ money.
Due for debate in the Lower House in less than two weeks’ time, Red Union is launching a national campaign to kill the bill and restore workers’ rights.
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