The Australian Workers' Union 2026 National Conference

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.

To National Secretary, Paul Farrow, National President Marina Chambers, National Executive Members, Elected Delegates, and Rank and File Members.

Thank you for this opportunity to acknowledge the great support of the AWU.

Paul invited me personally and I was delighted to accept.

It’s been a privilege to get to know Paul in recent years.

The fact that you’re led by a former aircraft maintenance engineer, means you can be sure you’re in safe hands.

Skilled, dedicated workers are the true backbone of our economy and the backbone of our nation.

They must be recognised, respected and rewarded.

Skilled workers built our country.

AWU members built our country.

Very literally.

It’s remarkable to think that this great union is 140 years old, reaching back to the Shearer’s Union in 1886.

It’s a full fifteen years older than federation.

And five years older than the Labor Party.

At our ALP National Conference in Adelaide in July, I launched the new edition of Ross McMullen’s superb history of the ALP, The Light on the Hill.

This union appears on page one—contesting the big industrial disputes that established the ALP back in the early 1890s.

You were there at the very start.

So I say this: if the AWU hadn’t been born, neither would the ALP.

And without the AWU, Australia would be different in so many important ways.

Even before our founders had written the Australian Constitution, the AWU had written the Australian social constitution.

Much of it can be summed up in two basic, fundamental ideas.

That any worker is as good as their boss.

And that everyone should have the right to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

The AWU transformed these ideas into the defining values of our country – equality, the fair go, decent living standards for all – and stamped them into the nation’s soul.

Our nation has have evolved much since then.

But those ideas are still with us.

And those ideas still guide us.

To continue to offer that decent life to everyone, we must remain a country that makes things.

I want us to be a country that develops minerals and energy, produces steel and aluminium, and makes high-quality manufactured goods.

As well as a country that benefits from the big transformative technologies connected to the energy transition and artificial intelligence.

We can do both.

We must do both.

Because the skilled, well-paid jobs these old and new industries create will be the true basis of a prosperous and decent society.

We want to give everyone, especially our young people – your children – an entry into this skilled, well-paid workforce of the future.

It’s why one of Labor’s proudest and most important achievements is creating 850,000 places in free TAFE.

Skilling Australians for in-demand jobs in the growth sectors of our economy.

It’s always great when our kids get into university and join the professions.

And equally great when they get into TAFE and get a trade or a vocational qualification and start building a future for themselves and the nation.

Creating these opportunities is why we support a Future Made in Australia.

A long-term commitment to build and sustain long-term industrial capability.

Backing our jobs, our ideas, our industries.

And supporting the clean energy transition that will give Australian heavy industry a path to a sustainable economic future in a changing world.

It’s why we went the extra mile to transition the Tomago aluminium smelter, preserving 1,000 jobs directly and another 5,000 indirectly across the Hunter.

Working with the company and the Minns Government, we will maintain one of the world’s only end-to-end aluminium supply chains and keep our advanced industrial capability strong into the future.

Tomago is a crucial part of our economy.

Because without aluminium, our industries will become more dependent on overseas suppliers in an age when supply chains are becoming increasingly vulnerable to disruption.

And because investing in Tomago is an investment in the future of the New South Wales east coast energy grid—and therefore an investment in the future of our low emissions industries.

Without the AWU’s tireless advocacy, this recognition of the importance of the Hunter to Australia’s industrial future would never have happened.

And I want to personally thank Paul, the union, and the delegates who I've met there on multiple visits to Tomago, I've got to say, and the union, the workers there, for fighting so hard to make success possible.

I also want to thank Tim Ayres and acknowledge his great work as a Minister.

No one has done more to revitalise the future of heavy industry in Australia.

We have invested in Tomago because we are determined – absolutely determined – to help our industrial communities transition to the future.

As we build out a new, modern renewable energy grid, gas remains critical for heavy industry and manufacturing.

For those facilities that use gas as a feedstock.

And for those big manufacturing facilities who will use it as a transition energy source.

The AWU has been calling for gas reservation for 20 years.

And today, hopefully, or tomorrow, the Parliament, the House of Representatives, at least through the lower house, will pass the Gas Reservation Scheme.

That is a great day for this union.

And we need to keep the pressure on the make sure that it passes the Senate.

Because what it will do is pretty simply reserve Australian gas for Australian industry.

Putting downwards pressure on prices.

Securing long-term industrial investment.

And strengthening Australia’s energy reliability and security.

Economic modernisation can’t be held back—history teaches us that.

Waves of industrial modernisation have transformed our nation since the 1800s.

Inevitably, it sometimes brings pain to affected communities.

Sadly, the recent news out of Liberty Bell Bay hasn’t been positive.

And I know a lot of your members have lost their jobs and that their communities and your union are suffering.

Despite our tireless attempts to give the smelter a future, a serious buyer couldn’t be found.

And I understand your disappointment towards the owner of that smelter and the blast furnace in Whyalla who made big promises, then never kept them.

But what I want you to know is this: that we will be doing all we can to assist the workers of both communities find a future for themselves and their families.

And that we are committed to a long-term future for Whyalla making Australian steel.

We have to do that.

Delegates, our successes in finding investment in the Boyne aluminium smelter in Gladstone, in Glencore’s copper smelter in Mount Isa, and our support for Nyrstar’s zinc, antimony and lead operations in Hobart and Port Pirie show that Australian metals production does have a sound future.

Especially when unions, communities, companies and governments at all levels work together.

Now, the Gas Reservation Scheme will add to this, securing that future.

Which is why this union deserves absolute credit for the role that you play.

But why, over the next few weeks as we head towards a vote in the Senate, you must join with us in putting the pressure on, whether it's the Coalition of the Greens or whoever else, One Nation, to vote for this.

Because this is about the future of Australia.

And you can't argue that you actually stand up for our nation if you're not supporting this domestic Gas Reservation Scheme.

Now, as you all know, the higher inflation caused by the global economic situation is causing considerable economic pain right across Australia.

But I want you to know that whatever the global economic situation throws at us, Labor will keep battling to ensure Australian workers and their families aren’t left behind.

We are the only political party providing real, practical policies to ease the current economic pressures.

With policies that will remain when economic conditions have eased.

Since coming to power:

We have created around 1.3 million jobs.

We have the lowest unemployment rate of any government in 50 years.

We have supported five consecutive increases to the minimum wage—boosting many low-wage workers’ income by up to $12,000 a year.

As well as five cuts to income taxes for working Australians.

We have also increased rates of Medicare bulk billing — so that when you and your families need to see a doctor, out-of-pocket costs go down.

There's a real benefit every family can feel.

Importantly, our reforms to industrial relations and workplace rights are delivering real benefits to workers right across the economy.

Legislating workplace rights that are helping workers boost take home pay and improve conditions.

Our efforts have provided historic wage increases for industries that have been left behind, like childcare workers and aged care workers.

We've closed the gender pay gap to an all-time low. Our goal is to narrow it even further.

We have legislated six months of Paid Parental Leave.

Made wage theft a crime.

And importantly, we have legislated for Same Job Same Pay — closing loopholes to ensure labour hire employees get the same pay as those doing the same job with the same experience alongside them.

That rip-off is now gone.

We have legislated to protect penalty rates.

We are introducing a new Fair Work Court so your members can get claims for underpayment and other injustices resolved quickly and cheaply.

And we have ensured superannuation is paid on pay day.

And while we’re on the subject of superannuation — only Labor will protect the universal superannuation system the whole union movement fought so hard to create.

We believe in industry super and only Labor will defend industry super.

We won’t let the Coalition or One Nation raid super and rob your members of the compounding interest that will set them up for retirement.

I know that’s a long list of Labor wins for working people — but it’s one we are very proud of.

Really proud of, in just four years.

And one we couldn’t have achieved without the support of the AWU and the entire union movement.

Again, my thanks to every single one of you.

Only Labor will deliver genuine cost of living help like this.

Other parties, including One Nation, claim sometimes to be on the side of working people.

But if you just listen to what they say, and one glance at their policies tells you they are coming after your wages, your conditions, your employment rights, your living standards.

And they're coming after your union.

Judge them by their actions and their stated policies, and what way they vote in the Parliament, not the confected vibe of their social media posts.

Judge them by this:

Their opposition to every one of the minimum wage increases that flow through to award rates.

Their opposition to enshrining penalty rates.

Their opposition to job security for casuals.

Their opposition to our efforts to make wage theft a crime.

And their determination to play havoc with your members’ superannuation savings.

You can’t claim to be on the side of working people when your policies will rob them of income, destroy their job security, and undermine their future prosperity.

It’s as simple as that.

Only Labor has the policies to help working families cope with the rising cost of living.

And only Labor is providing real change for Australian workers and their families.

Delegates, I could sum up Labor’s cost of living and workplace policies in one important principle.

It’s the principle I began with.

The same principle your union was formed to fight for 140 years ago:

A fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage.

We’re going to keep battling hard to protect it.

Because when you have an economy that creates the jobs of the future.

Pays its people well.

Gives them the skills they need to get the job of their dreams.

The services they need to live secure and decent lives.

And treats them with equality and respect.

You end up with a good society.

And a great country.

A place more at peace with itself.

Delegates, this is what unions and Labor working together can achieve.

You’ve been doing it for 140-years.

135 of them alongside the Australian Labor Party.

Two wings – industrial and political – which together enable our movement to fly into the future.

Thanks very much.

PM&C acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.