Queensland teachers are gearing up for a 24-hour strike, and it’s about time! After a rally of 500 teachers and supporters in Brisbane, the action has been backed by an overwhelming majority of Queensland Teachers’ Union members.
Teachers are overworked, underpaid and burnt out. This is hardly surprising when full-time teachers in Australia report working <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/atwd-reports/national-trends-teacher-workforce-jun2025">50 hours a week</a>. Teachers also require a minimum of three years at university, yet on graduation are <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/From-bad-to-worse-to-what-NSW-Teachers-Pay-2020-2022-and-beyond-Buchanan.pdf">paid less</a> than sales representatives, real-estate agents and police, none of whom require a degree.
The strike was called after the state government’s insulting pay offer of 8 percent over three years, after real wages had been driven down in recent years. While the Liberal National Party government is spending $147.9 million on police equipment and $3.8 billion on venues for the Olympics, teachers can’t afford to live in the suburbs where they teach. 
The QTU’s strike action is an excellent step forward. Part of the demand is “nation-leading salaries”, but the union leaders have refused to put a figure on what they’re pursuing in negotiations. A seven-year teacher on the Gold Coast earns $20,000 less than a seven-year teacher 30 minutes away in New South Wales. With all teachers being underpaid across the country relative to other qualified professions, there’s much to fight for. 
This problem didn’t begin with the newly elected LNP state government. Under the previous Labor government, our wages fell 6.5 percent behind the Brisbane Consumer Price Index. 
Workloads have been a feature of every negotiation over the past decade, but they’ve only gotten worse. A key reason has been that the union leaders refused to call strikes against the Labor government despite majority votes of union members favouring action.
Strikes demonstrate how critical workers are to the system. Withholding our labour is our most important weapon to fight bosses and governments. The Education Department is scrambling to pretend like it’s “business-as-usual” at schools this week. But with tens of thousands of union members set to strike, the government will be hard-pressed to keep schools open. 
Premier David Crisafulli is in for a serious showdown with public servants—many workplace agreements are due for renegotiation. Firefighters are balloting for strike action, while nurses are getting ready to <a href="https://www.qnmu.org.au/Web/Media_and_Publications/News/News_items/2025/Are_you_ready_to_strike_for_EB12.aspx">escalate to work stoppage</a> as well. Who’s going to treat the patients? Extinguish the fires? Teach the students? Not David Crisafulli. 
It will take more than one day to challenge the government, but this is a great start.

QTU member

Queensland public school teachers set to strike

Transport engineers and technical workers across Queensland at the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) walked off the job in a statewide strike on Monday, the first in many decades. Up to 450 workers stopped work for twelve hours in Brisbane, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Mackay, Rockhampton, the Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Toowoomba and elsewhere.
Significant growth in union membership made the strike possible. In just a few months, Professionals Australia membership at TMR has tripled to 450. One engineer in Brisbane spoke of new pride that has developed: “Standing with my colleagues, I’m confident we can make a change through the power of being in a union.”
The action was in defiance of the state Liberal government’s wages policy. Engineers rejected an offer of an 8 percent wage rise over three years—the same at- or below-inflation deal offered to nurses and teachers. At rallies across the state, engineers demanded 20 percent.
Queensland is experiencing a record wave of infrastructure investment as the Brisbane Olympics approach. Major projects rely on public engineers, but low pay is leaving roles vacant. Many at TMR earn 20 to 30 percent less than their counterparts at Queensland Rail and Powerlink, even when working on the same projects.
“This action isn't solely about salary”, one Cairns engineer later told Red Flag via WhatsApp. “It's about fair compensation and preserving the knowledge base within TMR. We used to lead infrastructure design; now we’re becoming a contractor management department.”
That transformation away from in-house expertise and toward privatisation was a recurring theme on the day. “Our jobs are being contracted out at higher rates, and our conditions are well behind those in the industry performing the same work”, said another engineer in Rockhampton to Red Flag via WhatsApp. 
Tensions escalated last week when TMR sent hundreds of engineers home without pay for implementing minor work bans—including bans on working more than 36.25 hours per week, completing introductory training, and submitting or approving timesheets. The retaliation only pushed more workers towards strike action. Engineers also linked their fight to those of others across the public sector. As one Brisbane engineer put it in a speech: 
“Teachers are striking on Wednesday, and nurses have been taking action too. The bosses are watching us. If we settle for less, it tells others they’re worth less — and tells the bosses they can get away with it. But if we fight and win, it shows what union power can achieve.”
These are mostly older, white-collar, relatively well-paid professionals — the kinds of workers many assume would never strike. But with political leadership and ambitious demands, engineers are proving that, like all workers, they can fight back.

Queensland engineers strike for the first time in decades

History often happens without warning and, even more often, against all our wishes and best efforts. Sunday, 3 August, was different. Hundreds of thousands woke up ready and determined to make history themselves on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The March for Humanity, a protest against 22 months of genocide and starvation in Gaza, was historic, not least for its sheer size. Sydney has not seen a protest so big since the march against the Iraq war more than twenty years ago. “Massive, unprecedented and huge”, Jewish anti-Zionist journalist Antony Loewenstein announced from the speakers’ platform in Lang Park. There’s no question the march exceeded 100,000 participants, protest organisers predicting the final tally could be triple that.
Half of Sydney’s CBD became a protest-only zone. Helicopters buzzed overhead, drowned out as the day went on by cowbells, drums, whistles and the banging of pots and pans to signify the starvation gripping Gaza. 
“Hello passengers”, said a prerecorded voice on the Wynyard train station loudspeaker. “If you’re here for the protest ...”. I waited at the top of the station escalators to meet up with members of my union. One wrote in our group chat that her train from Glenfield, two hours before the protest, was composed of just two groups: “One: Palestine protesters. Two: Footy fans”. Another chimed in: “We just came through Lidcombe and more and more passengers are getting on ... All walks of life. We stand together, it’s brilliant”.
They weren’t wrong. Up the escalators, in progressively larger instalments, came what looked like all of society. Every conceivable age and background; from choirs, unions, religious groups and political parties; from every suburb of Sydney, every corner of NSW and interstate.
The crowd exited the station and stepped out into truly appalling weather. The rain came in angry fits, and vain hopes raised by fleeting rays of sunshine were repeatedly dashed. Yet this was a day that masses of people wouldn’t have missed for the world. A very dapper man walked past me in Lang Park, hardly giving his beautiful shoes a second glance as they sank into mud. When children are dying of human-made hunger, or shot dead for sadistic target practice, would anyone let a bit of rain hold them back?
I tried to observe what I could by weaving through the crowd. The fastest way to move was by sloshing along the kerb of York Street, where a small river was flowing. Yet the people just kept coming. Homemade placards (“Penny Wong is a ‘non-lethal’ murderer”), keffiyehs galore, shirts with every conceivable slogan. Umbrellas, umbrellas, umbrellas. Each time I returned somewhere—Wynyard Station, Lang Park, or the woefully under-prepared Domino’s Pizza—the crowd was impossibly huger than before, as if I were returning on a different day.
The march was also historic because it was opposed by both major political parties and police. Two other great protest marches across the bridge—the 2000 March for Reconciliation and the 2023 World Pride march—were endorsed and even led by most of official society. The March for Humanity, however, was fought tooth and nail by NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns and the state’s police force. Minns lied that the rally would plunge the city into “chaos”. Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi (recently sanctioned by Anthony Albanese’s parliament for silently holding a sign protesting the starvation of children) explained from the platform: “It was never about traffic, it was never about logistics, it was always about protecting Israel and the Labor government from accountability”.
Minns made it clear that he opposed the bridge march regardless of how much notice was given. The NSW police took protest organisers to court to try stop it from going ahead. The outcry and overwhelming support from more than 300 organisations tipped the court ruling in our favour. “We’re here today because people power won”, Amnesty International representative Mohamed Duar told the crowd. Duar’s father still has the key to his house in Palestine that was stolen from his family by Israel in 1967. “I promised my father that one day he would be able to return, and I intend to keep my promise”. Sporting legend Craig Foster also spoke, and anti-war hero Julian Assange marched at the front with the lead banner.
In an encouraging sign, more trade unions than ever endorsed the protest and its pro-Palestinian demands. Flags and banners represented the National Tertiary Education Union, the Nurses and Midwives’ Association and the Electrical Trades Union, among others. As Maritime Union of Australia state secretary Paul Keating told the crowd, organised workers have played an essential role in struggles against war and racism throughout Australian history, from Vietnam to South African apartheid. “I say to my fellow trade unions, if ever there was a time to come together and be a force for good, now is the time”.
As part of my transport job, I drive over this bridge almost every week, and it’s still beautiful every time I do. But that did not leave me any better prepared for approaching the bridge on foot in the middle of the road. The slow but dogged pace, the onwards push of the crowd, the sprawling out as the road widened and the surging mosh when it narrowed again. The bridge loomed ahead like something to conquer, and the crowd moved inexorably to take it. Just as I had this thought, we began to chant: “Whose bridge? Our bridge!”
Cheers erupted as our contingent finally passed under the iconic steel structure. Beneath its magnificent arches, flanked by those gigantic hangers and moving cheek by jowl for a righteous cause—I have never seen the Harbour Bridge from a more beautiful vantage point. Even the bridge climbers above us, who would have seen the march in its full glory, missed something by being so far away from the action (though many raised their fists in solidarity).
Exactly halfway across the bridge, I felt something almost dreamlike. There were a hundred thousand people on this bridge. For a moment, this most famous Australian landmark belonged to Palestine. A brief pause in the chanting. The crowd was enveloped in silence and the sky in fog. I turned to the activist next to me. Did he feel it too? He nodded. “It’s like being in the eye of a storm”.
The crowd’s spirits were not dampened by the endlessly renewed bouts of rain, nor by the police’s sudden decision to block the end of the bridge and make everyone march back the other way. A protester, who on any other day looked like she worked in the quietest part of the library, fumed past: “It’s just a fucking power trip. Absolutely pathetic fuckers cannot hack that we beat them in court”. But perhaps for once in their life, police were telling the truth: at up to six times the anticipated size, the rally might have been simply too big to take the planned route into North Sydney. Not a bad problem to have.
Turning back did not mean giving up. The crowd left the bridge in perfect safety and order, proceeding all the way back to Wynyard Station, and then spilling out onto George Street until reaching Town Hall. “Show me what democracy looks like!” called the megaphoners; “This is what democracy looks like!”, we replied. 
After the march, leading Palestine Action Group organiser and socialist activist Josh Lees wrote on social media that it was “an absolutely incredible day. Minns predicted chaos. Instead, we had what we knew we would: a beautiful outpouring of humanity, marching side by side to end a genocide and demand our government sanction Israel. We’ve sent an enormous message to the world. Today the people spoke, and they said stop the genocide! Free Palestine!”
Each of those individuals amongst the people made a choice to give up their Sunday, catch overflowing trains into pouring rain, stand for hours and march for hours more, and rail against a genocide that Australia’s entire political, media and university establishment has covered up, excused and enabled. And by the sounds of it, most of those who came had been willing to do so even if all the powers that be succeeded in their uncompromising efforts to ban the march. “I was coming either way”, my GP’s receptionist told me the day before, when the court ruling came in. Facing the horror of this modern-day Holocaust, the spirit that captured Sydney on Sunday is exactly what gives socialists hope in the possibility of a better world—one run by ordinary people and not our genocidal masters. 
There’s one more reason that Sunday made history. For the first time ever, the Shit-Eater of the Year Award has been called five months early. Judges say they’ve never seen any nominee, let alone a sitting premier, eat so much shit over a single weekend. Give us a big grin, Chris Minns. With a movement this determined to end the unbearable slaughter of Gaza, there’ll be plenty more for you to come.

April Holcombe

Making history on Sydney Harbour Bridge: massive March for Humanity

Dean: “We have received an anonymous complaint about your teaching related to Palestine.”
Teacher: “What specifically about my teaching?”
Dean: “I can’t say specifically, because that could breach the student’s anonymity.”
Teacher: “How can I respond to the accusation unless I know what it was I said that was the problem?”
Dean: “I can say only in general terms that there were several examples. That you were not presenting all sides of the debate.”
Teacher: “Can I know whether it was one of my students who complained?”
Dean: “No. And you cannot tell anyone of the existence or nature of this complaint.”
This conversation occurred at an Australian university. We know about it only because it was described in a confidential submission to the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine. In all likelihood, similar conversations have been happening behind closed doors in deans’ offices at campuses all over the country. 
University staff and students are being subjected to spurious complaints and opaque disciplinary procedures for expressing support for Palestine. They are being accused of prejudice—or worse, of antisemitism—for speaking against a genocide. In many cases, those students and staff aren’t even allowed to speak publicly about their experience. 
The widespread censorship of pro-Palestine speech on Australian university campuses was what motivated a group of students in Students for Palestine to establish a People’s Inquiry. Inspired by the Russell Tribunal of the 1960s, which assembled prominent figures to investigate US war crimes in Vietnam, the People’s Inquiry brought together members and representatives of the National Union of Students, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, the Jewish Council of Australia, as well as Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi and human rights activists and academics. The aim was to shine a light on the alarming situation unfolding on university campuses. 
After the People’s Inquiry was launched, we received more than 150 submissions from twenty universities across Australia, an indication of the systematic nature of censorship when it comes to Palestine. The submissions detailed instances of repression, intimidation, silencing and punishment of university staff and students expressing support for Palestine and opposition to Israel’s genocide.
A small selection of the submissions formed the basis for the inquiry’s preliminary report, “Don’t talk about Palestine: it’s a career killer”. The title was taken from one of those submissions. In it, the submitter said they had received that advice from the director of a political research centre based at the University of Queensland. 
Following the preliminary report’s publication, the People’s Inquiry held two days of public hearings, one at the University of Sydney and one at the University of Melbourne, inviting university students and staff to share their stories. 
Before they were allowed to proceed, People’s Inquiry organisers at the University of Sydney were required by management to read out a statement assuring the audience that the university was committed to “freedom of speech and academic freedom as foundations to a vibrant democracy and our pursuit of knowledge”. The university was trying to cover its backside. But platitudes about free speech and “vibrant” democracies rang hollow in a room full of people who had come to listen to and share stories of censorship and arbitrary discipline. The irony appears lost on Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott, who didn’t accept an invitation to appear at the hearing. 
At the University of Melbourne, a photographer with the Australian Associated Press was initially prevented by security from entering the room where the hearing was taking place, but he was eventually let in. Maybe it was the act of an overzealous guard, but “Journalist denied access to free speech inquiry” would not have been a good headline for the university in any case.
The public hearings shed further light on the regime of censorship on university campuses. The panel heard from National Tertiary Education Union branch committee members who revealed that two staff members had been sacked from the University of Melbourne for speaking about Palestine. A medical student related that he was refused permission to organise an information stall on the situation in Gaza at the annual medical students’ conference.
There are high-profile cases of university repression of pro-Palestine speech, such as the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-university-vowed-not-to-spy-on-students-now-it-s-using-tracking-data-to-punish-them-20240704-p5jr3y.html">tracking of pro-Palestine students</a> through the wi-fi at the University of Melbourne. There’s the case of the international student at the University of Sydney who faced the <a href="https://honisoit.com/2025/03/usyd-threatens-transgender-student-with-deportation-after-violating-the-cap/">potential cancellation of her student visa and deportation</a> for writing pro-Palestine messages on a whiteboard.
Then there are the cases of repression and censorship that don’t make the headlines: the private meetings with management and the veiled threats couched in the language of “safety” or “wellbeing”. Many instances have been reported to the People’s Inquiry, but there are likely many more.
While we should not encourage university management to take a more active role in policing speech and political opinions on campuses, it is remarkable that supporters of Israel seem to have faced no consequences for cheering on a genocidal regime that is using starvation to decimate Gaza’s civilian population. At Monash University, Israel supporters <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/universities-crack-down-on-palestine-solidarity">repeatedly harassed and assaulted</a> pro-Palestine students at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and faced no consequences.
Students and staff speaking and protesting in support of Palestine are often accused by supporters of Israel of spreading hatred and division. Yet when Mark Leibler, a member of the University of Melbourne’s University Council, <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/02/jaccuse-the-jew-who-accuses-his-fellow-jews-of-being-antisemites/">in a social media post</a> described anti-Zionist Jews as “repulsive and revolting human beings” whose family members murdered by the Nazis would “undoubtedly be turning in their graves”, the university defended him on the grounds that the remark was made “in his personal capacity” and not as a university representative. Perhaps if students clarify that we oppose genocide in our “personal capacity” rather than as university students, we might be let off the hook? Somehow, I doubt it.
Why is this happening?
Universities often cultivate a self-image as institutions of free inquiry where challenging and controversial ideas are debated on their merits. In reality, universities serve power. Where it does exist, space for genuine political dissent has been carved out on the campuses despite university managers rather than because of them.
The higher education sector caters to modern capitalist economies’ ideological and technical needs. Universities are enormous workplaces: highly paid executives sit at the top and determine the day-to-day life of thousands of professional and academic staff. Each university competes with its peers in a global education market, vying for lucrative international student enrolments.
Reflective of their deep integration with and dependence on governments, universities frame their purpose in terms of the “national interest”. A <a href="https://universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2025-federal-election-statement-Universities-matter-to-Australias-future.pdf">statement published by Universities Australia</a> in the lead-up to the 2025 federal election described universities as “vital national assets” that “underpin our nation’s prosperity” and strengthen our “international competitiveness”. 
Let’s remind ourselves what “national interest” really means. It means shielding Australia’s allies from attack or criticism, even (or especially) when that ally is committing crimes against humanity.
The national interest means spending upwards of $368 billion to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines—a sum that could build more than a million new public housing units. In a media release from November 2023, Universities Australia again spelled it out: “The planning, construction, operation and maintenance of our nuclear-powered submarines will not be possible without the skilled workers our unis educate or the research they undertake”.
As great-power conflict returns to the centre of world politics, Australian universities are giddy about the research and funding opportunities being presented. The University of Melbourne, for example, is spending $2 billion on a new campus at Fishermans Bend that will host partnerships with major weapons manufacturers.
Little wonder that the universities react with hostility to the pro-Palestine movement. Our movement wants to disrupt business as usual. We call out the crimes of a key Western ally in the Middle East and our own government’s complicity. We oppose the booming military-industrial complex. 
The problem for university managers is that students have been at the forefront of this movement. Students, many staff and thousands of others have refused to be silenced and browbeaten. We have rejected the lies of the people in power. We have camped, petitioned, occupied, rallied, assembled and protested for Palestine. 
In response, campuses have become the centre of attacks on free speech and political organising. Labor-appointed Special Envoy Jillian Segal paid particular attention to the universities in her “Plan to Combat Antisemitism”, which is, in reality, a plan to silence criticism of Israel. She wants universities to crack down even harder on pro-Palestine action and thought, and her plan proposes cutting funding from universities that don’t.
The repression playing out on campuses is serious. But it is possible to push back. Universities are susceptible to pressure. Defending the indefensible crimes of the Israeli state demands an authoritarian logic, but universities are also under pressure at least to appear to support open academic inquiry. Resistance from students and staff can beat back the attacks. The People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine aims to give a voice to those who have been silenced and to expose the universities’ chilling attacks against those who stand for justice in Palestine.
James McVicar is a panellist on the People’s Inquiry and the education officer for the National Union of Students.

James McVicar

People’s Inquiry exposes university censorship on Palestine

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the world's iconic landmarks. The Palestine Action Group has organised for tens of thousands to march across it on Sunday 3 August to oppose the genocide in Gaza. We’ve just won a significant victory in the NSW Supreme Court: the NSW Police application to overturn the right to march has been struck down.
The right to protest this Sunday is a serious win. As Josh Lees, Palestine Action Group organiser, told media during the court proceedings, “Humanity in Gaza is at stake, and our humanity here is at stake”. The entire population of Gaza is starving. The Israeli aid blockade and constant bombardment have killed tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of Palestinians already. The situation is acute, and it calls for urgent action.
The outpouring of public support for this protest has been immense. The original Instagram post advertising the event has been viewed nearly a million times. More than 300 organisations have endorsed the rally. At least eleven trade unions, including the Maritime Union, the United Workers Union, the Nurses and Midwives’ Association and the Electrical Trades Union, have pledged their support. Political organisations, NGOs, religious groups, and cultural institutions are on board, and the list of endorsements includes celebrities such as Stella Donnelly and Craig Foster. It’s been enough to pressure Sydney mayor Clover Moore to lend her approval to the rally, and fifteen NSW Parliamentarians, including five Labor members, signed a statement declaring their support for the protest. Even Sydney’s most popular meme page “monkeyboy.sydney” has shared the protest details.
Despite this, Labor Premier Chris Minns and the NSW Police have done everything in their power to prevent the rally from going ahead. On Thursday, Minns told the media that "the last thing we want, and the last thing police want, is chaos in Sydney streets". On Friday, the police took Lees to court on behalf of the organisers, claiming the protest on the bridge would be a threat to public safety. But it's not impossible to close the Harbour Bridge, and “public safety” was a cheap excuse to deny us the right to protest. 
The bridge has been closed plenty of times: twice in 2023 for a Ryan Gosling film and the World Pride march, in 2000 for the Walk for Reconciliation and in 2009 for a picnic. It’s also regularly shut for marathons, including one coming up in four weeks. None of these events have caused threats to the public, and in most cases they are far less urgent than taking a stand against genocide. In response to the argument made by the police that it would create disturbance to the public to allow the protest to go ahead, the Supreme Court judge was right to find that, “if matters such as this were to be determinative, no assembly which would cause disruption would be permitted”. 
Chris Minns and the police did everything in their power to suggest that the protest was already or could be banned. This was a lie. We have the right to demonstrate in NSW. But the fact that they threw everything at preventing us tells you something important about how society works, and why socialists think mass politics matters.
The late Marxist cultural critic John Berger once wrote of mass demonstrations that they pose to the state a challenge—either the capitalist class and the state repress them, and in so doing show their true, unjust motivations; or they're forced in the face of mass numbers and determination of ordinary people to let them go ahead, and in so doing reveal that there's a greater power than theirs below the surface. Our rally is not a revolutionary rehearsal. But it's important that we won this small test of wills between the forces of injustice and imperialism, and the humanity of ordinary Sydneysiders standing up to a genocide. The world is watching Gaza, and the world will be watching us.

Yasmine Johnson

Thousands will march across the Harbour Bridge for Gaza

Workers at the Star Brisbane made history on 4 July, striking for the first time in the casino’s history and for the first time in an Australian casino in sixteen years. Star employees are the worst-paid casino workers in the country. They walked out after the company offered a new contract that would leave them even worse off and cut their Sunday penalty rates. 
During the strike, workers voted to strike again during the State of Origin decider on 9 July and again during a poker tournament later that week. The State of Origin strike was a huge success, and the tournament was subsequently cancelled, a big win for the workers.
Workers walked off the job at 6pm on 4 July and were met by hundreds of cheering supporters. 
“This is a company that always manages to find millions and millions of dollars in bonuses for the executives, but when it comes to paying us, they’re suddenly going broke. Well, I think they’re full of it”, said Kaine Kennedy, a delegate with the United Workers Union, addressing the assembled workers and supporters. 
A group of women who have been with the company for many years as cleaners and cashiers were the angriest, waving their union flags and breaking out into chants: “Sunday rates! Sunday rates!”
One made a speech: “I’ve been here for 30 years, and this is the worst agreement that we’ve ever had. We need to keep our Sunday rates due to the cost of living and for our wellbeing and mental health. We work twice as hard on the weekends”.
Another told Red Flag: “All the tables and pits are closed! They’re going to lose so much!”
Workers say the cleaners have to do the work of two or three people and are denied a sewage allowance after cleaning up shit. Apparently, it’s too hard for the Star to pay fair wages to the workers—but the CEO of Star Entertainment gets a $10 million salary package.
It’s not just Star workers getting a crap deal. It’s a similar story all across Australia. Bosses have unchecked power at work and do whatever they think they can get away with, all to make more money. 
But when workers strike, that begins to change. As Kaine put it:
“Everywhere you look in Australia, there’s a boss trying to save a couple bucks by screwing over their workers. That’s why we need more of this. We need more workers standing together, fighting back and saying we’re not going to take it. We’re not going to let you make another cent until you pay us what we deserve.”

Jessica Abbo

Historic strikes at Brisbane’s Star Casino

Homes blanketed with dust. People cannot open windows and enjoy fresh air or sit outside during summer. They wake up and taste dust in their mouth. Pavers, roofs, gutters, cars and gardens must be constantly cleaned.
This is life for many residents in Sellicks Beach, 45 minutes’ drive south of Adelaide. For much of the year, locals live under a cloud of dust from the Sellicks Hill Quarry.
The quarry is owned by Adbri, Australia’s second-largest cement producer. Dust emissions have been a source of complaints for more than a decade, but residents say that the problem has become worse following a recent expansion. 
“They’ve increased the volume of business exponentially, and the volume of dust is now totally unbearable”, Mike von Berg, a local resident, told A Current Affair.
The nuisance of daily cleaning is bad enough. But health concerns are also evident. Many residents report chronic coughing and respiratory issues. Hazel, an anti-dust campaigner, has developed blepharitis, an eye condition, which she attributes to quarry dust. 
“My family has moved away from Sellicks because they believed the dust was causing health problems”, she told Red Flag.
Residents also say that they have found silica particles in the dust. When inhaled, silica can cause lung disease and cancer. “We live in a beautiful location”, said Helen, another local. “And the thought that it could be toxic is horrifying.”
In March, 150 residents attended an angry meeting and called on health authorities to conduct comprehensive and targeted research to prove that the dust contains no respirable levels of silica.
Premier Peter Malinauskas has claimed that Adbri is subject to “severe” environmental regulations. Since 2016, the company has been required to develop a dust management plan and reduce emissions.
Despite government reassurances, not enough is being done. For years, locals have documented the quarry violating regulations. In 2018, Adbri was fined for failing to comply with dust mitigation measures. In February, shortly after it approved a revised dust management plan, the Environmental Protection Authority issued a notice for excessive dust production. For Helen, more than “a little slap on the wrist” is needed to counter company negligence.
Following community pressure, Adbri has committed to a potentially stricter dust management plan. It remains unclear whether this will lead to ongoing improvements. Among political leaders, concerns have fallen on deaf ears. The state Labor government hopes to construct 1,700 homes on land just 500 metres from the quarry.
“We are not wanting the quarry to close down; we just want them to control the dust that they blow down over us”, Helen told Red Flag. “It is a basic human right to live in a clean environment and breathe clean air.”

Nix Herriot

Residents battle dust pollution in Adelaide’s south

Hundreds of teacher unionists rallied outside the Queensland parliament on 24 June to demand a decent pay rise from the state government. 
Teachers’ real wages have gone backwards by more than 6 percent in the last three years, but the government is offering an insulting 8 percent pay increase over the next three years, while annual inflation sits at 2.4 percent.
The teachers also want workloads to be reduced. High school teachers’ planning time has not increased since the 1970s, but there has been a dramatic increase in the required work—assessing, marking and writing new unit plans. All of this work is unpaid and unacknowledged by the government. 
“I don’t feel like there’s much time to get everything done”, Danielle, a secondary school teacher, told Red Flag at the rally. 
Mina, a primary public school teacher, said she thinks teachers deserve a 30 percent pay rise—the rate that rank-and-file network Queensland Teachers Fightback <a href="https://qldteachersfightback.org/our-wages-vs-inflation-vs-state-gov-wages-policy.html">is arguing for</a>. 
Mina told Red Flag that she supports taking strike action next term, “to get the point across that change is needed, a pay rise is needed, and we need to be acknowledged for the role we play in young kids’ lives”. Queensland public school teachers haven’t taken statewide industrial action in sixteen years. 
If teachers struck, they’d receive support. Construction workers from different job sites rallied alongside the teachers outside parliament. They agreed that teachers deserve the solidarity of other trade unions as they fight for their pay and conditions. 
One construction union member said attending the rally was important “to show the QTU [Queensland Teachers’ Union] is not alone. It’s a symbiotic relationship we have with all trade unions”. 
The QTU voted last year to support construction workers, whose union has been put into administration by the federal Labor government. Rank-and-file activists in both unions believe that, when one section of the workforce stands up to the bosses, they show all workers the power they have. 
Public sector workers are being left behind. Queensland teachers, nurses and firefighters are due to negotiate new contracts this year. But the Crisafulli state government has made it clear that, while there’s money for Olympic stadiums and cops, there’s little to nothing for the working class. 
Teachers will have to fight, and take industrial action, to win what they and their students deserve.

Isabella Foley

Queensland teachers fight back against insulting pay offer

I have been suspended from my high school for challenging a federal minister about his continued support for Israel and the genocide in Palestine.
I am a year 11 student at Coburg High in Melbourne, and Assistant Minister for Defence Peter Khalil visited our school this week. When I saw him on my way to class, I asked him about the government’s continued support for the Israeli government as it carries out genocide. As I did so, staff members told me that “there is a time and a place” for such questions.
Khalil nevertheless stopped for a moment to defend himself. He went on about how much he cares for the Palestinians. His evidence for this was that his father was in the Egyptian army, he is an immigrant, has been to Palestine and has “spoken with Penny Wong on many occasions”.
How is any of that relevant?
As I continued asking questions, Khalil began to walk away. A year-12 student joined me, and we chanted as Kahlil entered the school building: “Free Palestine, Peter!” Another student then joined us in this short protest.
My classmates and I have a history of protesting for Palestine. A contingent of us left school to join the School Strikes for Palestine and the demonstration against the Land Forces arms expo in Melbourne. While we were discouraged from attending, we were not disciplined for doing so.
On this occasion, our vice principal stopped us and told us not to yell at Khalil, who was the school’s guest. But we wanted to make it abundantly clear that we didn’t view him as a “guest”. Kahlil walked past us again, so we continued to chant “Free Palestine!” I also shouted: “Fucking scum!”
After this, I was barred from returning to class. I spent an hour with the vice principal, who told me what I had done was wrong and that I should have had “a civilised conversation” rather than shouting abuse.
But if what my classmates and I did was “uncivilised”, what do you call the genocide in Gaza that Khalil and Labor have supported?
Two days later, I was told I could do “community service” to avoid multiple days of suspension. But I believe that protesting for Gaza and holding politicians to account are the best services I can perform for my community.
Maybe Peter Khalil should be doing some global community service by ending Australia’s ties with apartheid Israel.
Khalil later posted on his social media: “On Monday I answered questions from some really politically passionate year 10 students ... We discussed youth health issues ...” Actually, he completely avoided talking about the health of Gaza’s children, who have been systematically bombed and starved.
I have been told that my suspension is due to my yelling at a school guest. But that guest is a federal government minister who has sat by and done nothing as Israel has destroyed every school and university in Gaza. I felt obliged to stand up and shout when he decided to parade himself through our school grounds.
Many students and staff have since expressed support for my actions. Although I have been suspended for doing what was right and being on the right side of history, this will not stop our fight for a free Palestine—because none of us is free until Palestine is free.
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Editor’s note: This article was resubmitted with amendments on 12 July. The original version did not include a reference to the author publicly calling Peter Khalil “fucking scum”. The editors regret that this information was not contained in the original piece and acknowledge that it is relevant context to the disciplinary case against Callum. 
However, we also congratulate Callum for forcefully confronting Peter Khalil and think his actions are politically defensible—indeed, justifiable. The political atmosphere in 2025 has been defined by a total failure on the part of the “adults in the room”—particularly politicians and journalists with national platforms—to adequately respond to what is arguably the moral question of our time: the wholesale destruction of Gaza and the mass murder and starvation of its population by a key international ally of the Australian government. 
Instead, we have witnessed sickening displays of obsequiousness and deference by Australian politicians to US President Donald Trump and Israeli war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. The world would be a better place if there were fewer Peter Khalils and more Callum Bells—people prepared to throw caution to the wind and just fight for what’s right.

Callum Bell

Suspended for confronting Peter Khalil

“We are here today because we are fighting for what is right!”
Striking Grill’d workers and their supporters protested in front of the burger chain’s Rundle Street store in Adelaide on 28 June, handing out flyers explaining why they were taking action against the company. They argued to people who tried to enter the store that they should boycott Grill’d while workers struck. Would-be customers were cheered when they walked away from the restaurant’s entrance.
After a few hours of protesting, the picketers took to the streets of Adelaide. “Support Grill’d workers—don’t eat the burgers!” they chanted as they spread the word throughout the city. Many of the workers have never taken industrial action before, and were buoyed by the experience. “Look, it’s our street—Union Street”!, one quipped while marching back to the store. 
The founder and CEO of Grill’d, Simon Crowe, wants <a href="https://thewest.com.au/business/retail/grilld-chief-executive-simon-crowe-says-the-burger-group-can-more-than-double-its-size-in-the-next-five-years-c-13698323">to double the company’s size by 2029</a>. Crowe, with a reported net worth of more than <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/they-slowly-strangled-me-grill-d-store-owner-lost-shop-days-before-christmas-20191206-p53hir.html">$450 million</a>, has grown rich off the backs of his workers.
Meanwhile, Grill’d workers struggle to make ends meet. The current agreement increases wages by just 1 percent per year. Once inflation is factored in, staff have gone backwards at a rate of knots.
An analysis from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA, the union covering the workers) has found that those on the current enterprise agreement are up to <a href="https://grilldworkersunited.org/terminate2020">37 percent worse off than if they had been on the award wage</a> instead.
So, across South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, Grill’d workers were out for better pay and conditions. Some of their demands include wage increases that account for inflation, appropriate pay for staff with more responsibilities, and guaranteed hours for permanent contracts.
Many of the workers reported to Red Flag that they are overworked and understaffed, and often unable to call in sick or take breaks.
Outside the Rundle Steet Grill’d, a supporter remarked: “See how ridiculously priced [the] burgers are? Surely, they can spare a few extra dollars for the workers here ... We all deserve fair living wages, so why not?”
One young worker said she was earning $600 working 50 hours a week, having just turned 18. “I didn’t know any better. This was my first job, and I took it because I was desperate”, she said, adding that while working at Grill’d and studying at university, she collects bottles to help pay for groceries and does DoorDash on the side.
At a time when strike rates are at a historic low and wealth inequality is soaring, these workers are showing what needs to happen. As one said defiantly, “Our efforts today will help the higher-ups see we are not to be taken advantage of, and we deserve to have an agreement where we are actually better off!”

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