2026-09-24
The Victorian Greens have welcomed Labor quietly pulling its controversial union-busting legislation from the parliamentary agenda after Premier Ben Carroll failed to secure enough support to pass it. With today the final sitting day before the election, Labor’s retreat means the legislation is now unable to pass this term.
The legislation threatened the existence of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) and would have handed the government extraordinary power over which groups of workers could organise together.
Victorian Greens spokesperson for workers’ rights Aiv Puglielli said the Premier had been forced to retreat after weeks of fierce opposition from workers, unions and the Greens.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens spokesperson for workers’ rights, Aiv Puglielli:
“This bill was a naked factional play from the beginning - one that would have sacrificed the rights of some of Victoria’s most vulnerable, lowest-paid young workers to Labor’s internal power plays. The fact Ben Carroll was prepared to put those workers and their union through this tells you everything you need to know about his priorities.
“RAFFWU has done exactly what a union should do: organised workers and taken on some of the biggest corporations in the country to fight wage theft and exploitation. For that, Labor tried to wipe them out.
“Last sitting week, Labor sabotaged its gutted work-from-home laws. Now it has been forced to retreat from legislation attacking workers’ right to organise.
“For a party that pretends to be a party of workers, Labor has spent its final weeks in Parliament showing workers exactly where they stand.
“The Greens were proud to stand with RAFFWU from day one, and we will keep standing with workers fighting for better pay, conditions and power in their workplaces.”
Quotes attributable to Michael Johnstone, Organiser for RAFFWU:
"With this bill gone, workers will continue to have the choice to join a real fighting union, one that has run campaigns in the last decade that workers in our industries haven't seen in lifetimes beforehand".