Latest news with #ElectricalTradesUnion
AU Financial Review
03-08-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Redundancy fund threatens to expel MUA as inter-union war blows up
A $400 million union redundancy fund has moved to kick out the maritime union in an extraordinary escalation of a union war enveloping Woodside's billion-dollar expansion of its Pluto LNG project. Sources familiar with the matter told The Australian Financial Review the Electrical Trades Union, which founded the severance and redundancy fund known as Protect, last week gave the Maritime Union of Australia 60 days' notice of its removal as a beneficiary.
Sydney Morning Herald
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Victorian Labor debates change to gender quotas
Victorian Labor is considering overhauling its policy for getting women into parliament as the party prepares to pick candidates for next year's state election, generating angst the number of women MPs could go backwards. While the Liberal Party grapples with how to increase its representation of women after another wipeout at the May federal election, women make up 55 per cent of MPs in the Labor party room in the Victorian parliament. Draft motions to change Victorian Labor rules have been circulated ahead of the party's state conference next month, including a proposal from the left-aligned Electrical Trades Union to amend the state party's gender quota policy. As it stands, women have to be preselected in 50 per cent of held and winnable seats in each house individually. The union wants affirmative action to be calculated by combining the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. A party source, speaking anonymously to discuss internal party issues, said the proposal showed a misunderstanding of the policy and feared it could cut the percentage of women in the party room – especially if Labor endures a swing against it at the November 2026 election. Another party source agreed the proposal could water down the number of women MPs by one or two seats in the Victorian parliament. Loading Pamela Anderson, chief executive of Labor women's forum Emily's List, said the existing affirmative action policy had a positive impact on the parliament. 'We will continue to advocate to ensure the rules remain as they are,' Anderson said.
The Age
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Victorian Labor debates change to gender quotas
Victorian Labor is considering overhauling its policy for getting women into parliament as the party prepares to pick candidates for next year's state election, generating angst the number of women MPs could go backwards. While the Liberal Party grapples with how to increase its representation of women after another wipeout at the May federal election, women make up 55 per cent of MPs in the Labor party room in the Victorian parliament. Draft motions to change Victorian Labor rules have been circulated ahead of the party's state conference next month, including a proposal from the left-aligned Electrical Trades Union to amend the state party's gender quota policy. As it stands, women have to be preselected in 50 per cent of held and winnable seats in each house individually. The union wants affirmative action to be calculated by combining the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. A party source, speaking anonymously to discuss internal party issues, said the proposal showed a misunderstanding of the policy and feared it could cut the percentage of women in the party room – especially if Labor endures a swing against it at the November 2026 election. Another party source agreed the proposal could water down the number of women MPs by one or two seats in the Victorian parliament. Loading Pamela Anderson, chief executive of Labor women's forum Emily's List, said the existing affirmative action policy had a positive impact on the parliament. 'We will continue to advocate to ensure the rules remain as they are,' Anderson said.
Sydney Morning Herald
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Hopes for a new national park dashed, to the delight of hunters
Hunters and fishers have celebrated a vow from Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos that the Victorian government will not legislate a new national park spanning more than half a million hectares. Conservationists had for a decade campaigned for the creation of a Great Forest National Park, which would add another 355,000 hectares of forests to triple the area of Central Highlands that is currently protected. The expanded national park, joining seven existing forests and state parks, would have offered critical protections for endangered and imperilled animals like the Leadbeater's possum. But the proposal has been controversial among bush users' groups, who say it would lock recreational park users out. Gold prospectors, 4WD enthusiasts, shooters, horse riders and other groups, backed by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), have joined forces in a growing campaign against national parks, and have strongly campaigned against the creation of a Great Forest National Park. Sparked by a renewed push to ban duck hunting in Victoria, the ETU (Victorian branch) in 2023 brought together hunters, bush user groups, rock climbers and prospectors to form the Outdoor Recreation Advocacy Group. Speaking at an ETU delegates' conference this week, Dimopoulos assured attendees the Great Forest National Park proposal was not Labor policy, and Labor would not implement it. After the 2014 state election, Labor established a taskforce comprising representatives from environment groups, forestry unions and the logging industry to work towards a consensus on the creation of a Great Forest National Park.
The Age
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Hopes for a new national park dashed, to the delight of hunters
Hunters and fishers have celebrated a vow from Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos that the Victorian government will not legislate a new national park spanning more than half a million hectares. Conservationists had for a decade campaigned for the creation of a Great Forest National Park, which would add another 355,000 hectares of forests to triple the area of Central Highlands that is currently protected. The expanded national park, joining seven existing forests and state parks, would have offered critical protections for endangered and imperilled animals like the Leadbeater's possum. But the proposal has been controversial among bush users' groups, who say it would lock recreational park users out. Gold prospectors, 4WD enthusiasts, shooters, horse riders and other groups, backed by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), have joined forces in a growing campaign against national parks, and have strongly campaigned against the creation of a Great Forest National Park. Sparked by a renewed push to ban duck hunting in Victoria, the ETU (Victorian branch) in 2023 brought together hunters, bush user groups, rock climbers and prospectors to form the Outdoor Recreation Advocacy Group. Speaking at an ETU delegates' conference this week, Dimopoulos assured attendees the Great Forest National Park proposal was not Labor policy, and Labor would not implement it. After the 2014 state election, Labor established a taskforce comprising representatives from environment groups, forestry unions and the logging industry to work towards a consensus on the creation of a Great Forest National Park.
