As if the right to strike hasn’t been curtailed enough. On 14 October, the Queensland Liberal National Party government accepted a raft of recommendations from a review into the state’s industrial relations laws. Restricting the right to strike is central to the changes the LNP plan to implement, including giving the industrial relations minister sweeping new powers to stop workers from taking protected industrial action.
Under the proposed amendments, protected industrial action can be terminated by the minister “if it would ... cause significant damage to the state’s economy”. The same goes for action that would “significantly disrupt the delivery of a public service”—a direct attack on the ability of schoolteachers, paramedics, hospital workers and others to take protected action. According to industrial law firm Maurice Blackburn, the laws will also restrict the window in which protected industrial action can be taken and give employers the right to dock workers’ pay even in cases where they are still performing some duties while on strike.
The proposed amendments also target any action taken in the lead up to, or during, events such as the Brisbane Olympic games, where the minister simply needs to be satisfied that such action has “a significant effect that is contrary to the public interest” to have the power to terminate protected action.
Disruption is the point of strike action. The only power workers have to reliably improve their living standards is the collective withdrawal of their labour, and the chaos this causes is precisely what compels bosses concede to their demands and give workers a greater share of the value their work produces. A willingness to take such action is the reason why workers have sick leave, the eight-hour day, weekends, paid leave and more. It has been the actions of generations of workers that have gone before who have taken strike action, caused disruption and won the things that we value today. None of it was conceded willingly by bosses or governments.
The LNP make no secret of who their planned changes are intended to benefit. Their press release touting these reforms is all about protecting business interests, and as such they have inserted the buzz-word “productivity”—i.e. workers producing more for the same pay—into the industrial relations legislation multiple times. Among backers of the LNP’s changes are the CEOs of Business Chamber Queensland, Queensland Hotels Association and Master Builders Queensland.
Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie has cited the ongoing Queensland Rail dispute as an example of where, had these amendments been in effect, protected action by rail workers could have been terminated. The eight-month long dispute was initiated because workers refused to accept the government’s low-ball offer of an 8 percent wage rise over three years. In those eight months, the government has been forced to grant some minor concessions—something they do not want to repeat.
Premier David Crisafulli and his government have attempted to downplay the severity of the legislation, stating they are simply bringing Queensland’s industrial relations laws into line with the federal Fair Work laws brought in by the Rudd Labor government in 2009. That the LNP can point to Labor’s harsh anti-strike legislation at a federal level to justify their attacks is an indictment of the Labor Party, and its record in helping make Australia’s industrial relations laws some of the most draconian in the developed world. But the LNP’s amendments will go beyond the Fair Work provisions, particularly by giving the minister the power to stop strikes, not simply the industrial courts which at least have the pretence of being impartial.
In defending the new legislation, Bleijie told the ABC that “We’ve kept arbitration. We’ve kept conciliation.” No surprises there! Workers get nothing of substance from arbitration and conciliation—certainly not without winning it in the streets and in the workplaces first. The dispute between public school teachers and the Crisafulli government was referred to arbitration at the end of 2025, but it won’t be settled until next April at the earliest. Meanwhile, teachers’ pay and conditions continue to languish.
Another way in which the amendments break new ground in eroding workers’ rights is by undemocratically exerting control over who can and cannot be a union official or employee of a union. The amendments impose a significant number of restrictions, including a “fit and proper” test that can be applied by the Industrial Commission in relation to anyone employed by a union. If only the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk or Gina Rinehart were subject to a “fit and proper” person test.
Any union official who has, or who incurs, a conviction for an offence against industrial law can be removed from their role. Given the extremely draconian nature of Australia’s industrial laws, and the necessity of breaking them in the course of even routine union organising, this represents significant government interference in union activity. It is taking the precedent of the administration of the construction and general division of the CFMEU and applying it across unions in the state.
There is a raft of other attacks in the proposed amendments. One is to allow direct employer ballots to settle disputes, to circumvent the government having to come to agreement with unions first. This opens the door to employers negotiating with other organisations such as the LNP-aligned Nurses Professional Association of Queensland and the equivalent body for teachers. These were set up and are run by ex-LNP staffers such as Graeme Haycroft and Jack McGuire to undercut the existing unions. These associations had been restricted by the Palaszczuk Labor government in 2022.
These two changes complement each other. Direct ballots already happen but take place only after union members vote to accept an offer. The proposed changes would mean that employers can proceed with a direct ballot when “the employer has reached agreement with at least one employee organisation but cannot reach agreement with any of the other negotiating parties; and wishes to proceed with the proposed agreement despite not reaching agreement with all of the negotiating parties”. So, the legislation seeks to remove the requirement that employers come to an agreement with unions, opening the door to negotiation with LNP-aligned associations and then presenting direct employee ballots on inferior agreements.
Workers’ compensation is also in the firing line. Law firm Slater and Gordon state the changes will make it more difficult for workers to access compensation for psychological injuries.
There’s little standing in the Liberals’ way to getting this through parliament. Queensland’s unicameral system means that having a majority in the legislative assembly is enough to get bills adopted.
Union cannot go silent in the face of such attacks. Union leaders held a joint press conference with Opposition Leader Steven Miles to express their opposition to the proposed changes. Zac Beers, Australian Workers’ Union organiser, told the media, “The minister is coming to systematically dismantle your right to fight and organise in this state”. However, we can’t simply look to Labor to fend off these attacks. Looking to Labor is how we got Rudd’s Fair Work laws in the first place, after all.
What is needed, but is sorely missing from the overall union response, is a fight against these laws. The unions ought to be organising mass protests at the very least. This would draw attention to these attacks, force the media to engage with workers’ objections and send a message to workers everywhere that we don’t have to accept the constant erosion of our rights—we can fight back. This is exactly what the laws are trying to restrict—the power workers have when we act collectively. Protesting can also help make Crisafulli a pariah akin to Campbell Newman, the last LNP premier who was kicked out in a historic landslide. To do this, there needs to be visible resistance to the government, including industrial action against attacks like these. The reality is, such action would risk falling foul of the current anti-strike legislation, and is therefore something that our current union leaders have no stomach for. By this logic, we will continue to watch our hard-won rights and conditions be legislated away. At some point we need to fight, and there’s no time like the present.
Tim is a public school teacher in Brisbane.
