By Michael Evans. Successive NTEU surveys indicate that about a third of new members say one of their main reasons for joining is having a conversation with a colleague about the Union. Research also indicates that unions are largest and strongest when there are delegates or active members in a workplace, talking and working with potential new members. More...

By Michael Evans. A lack of job security is crippling higher education and its workforce. Changes in the sector mean that job insecurity is the norm. Only 2 out of 10 new employees were employed on a permanent basis or 3 out of 10 on a full time equivalent (FTE) basis. NTEU says it’s time for a Fair Go for Australian university staff. More...

By Jen T. Kwok. Innovation does not rate in the minds of the electorate. This is one of the great lessons learned by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the recent election. Once it was the pointy policy end of how Turnbull wished to reinvent his prime ministership. It was the portfolio cherry-picked to explain why, ‘There has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian’. Then the first six months of 2016 happened. More...

By Paul Kniest. The Minister for Education, Senator Simon Birmingham, released a report by the Higher Education Standards Panel (HESP) entitled “Improving the Transparency of Higher Education Admissions on 16 November 2016. More...

By Paul Kniest. Are we any clearer about the future direction of Australia’s higher education policy following the 2016 Federal election? While the Coalition Government has given up on the centrepiece of their higher education policy – ‘full’ undergraduate domestic fee deregulation– indicated that they are prepared to undertake further consultation, they refuse to give ground on contributing $2.5 billion from higher education to ‘financial sustainability savings’. More...

By Paul Kniest. The Turnbull Government has conceded that education is far too important to be left to the market. On Wednesday 5 October 2016, the Minister for Education, Senator Simon Birmingham, announced that it was his intention to abandon the existing VET- FEE HELP scheme and replace it with a new VET Student Loans Program from 1 January 2017. More...

By Jeannie Rea. Round 7 bargaining continues to unfold, predominantly in Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. The management agenda in WA, and in Queensland at Griffith and James Cook University (JCU) in particular, is a regressive one, paired with an aggressive approach. More...

By Jeannie Rea. The decline in sheer numbers of union members, as well as density amongst workers, is a crisis. The consequences are that, in poorly unionised areas decent remuneration, employment and working conditions are declining. More...

By Jeannie Rea. Designed to encourage more women to be present and active in unions, the Anna Stewart Memorial Project is a two week long internship program consisting of two days each week at Trades Hall, with the remaining time in a union of choice. More...

By Jeannie Rea. The #MakeThePledge campaign, launched on 18 August this year, calls on Victorian vice-chancellors to extend their domestic and family violence leave provisions to casual staff. More...