Speeches & Opinions 2011



Read speeches and opinion articles by ACTU officers and staff.



Our collection contains speeches delivered at conferences, forums, summits, rallies and events by Executive and senior ACTU staff.  It also contains op eds – previously published in mainstream media – by the ACTU President, ACTU Secretary or ACTU Assistant Secretaries.


Recent Speeches & Opinions

Jeff Lawrence address to Growth Challenge: 2011 Economic and Social Outlook Conference

June 30, 2011

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the Fair Work Act and an opportunity to evaluate where things are up to in the Australian workplace.

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Jeff Lawrence opinion piece: The Liberals just don’t get it

June 30, 2011

Almost two years to the day since the Fair Work Act began operation, Tony Abbott finally declared his intention to attack our new system of workplace relations.

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Investing in a fairer nation: Address by Jeff Lawrence to the ACTU Investment Forum, 17 June 2011

June 17, 2011

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence delivered the keynote address at the annual ACTU Investment Forum in Sydney on 17 June.

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Speech by Jeff Lawrence to Rights at Work rally, NSW Parliament House, 15 June 2011

June 15, 2011

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence on 15 June 2011 addressed 12,000 workers protesting outside NSW Parliament against the O’Farrell Government’s attack on rights at work.

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Jeff Lawrence address to Australian Mines and Minerals Association 2011 National Conference

May 27, 2011

The reality is that there are a number of industrial relations myths being circulated by commentators and some in the business community that distort the debate and raise the risk of poor policy outcomes, and they need to be addressed.

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Ged Kearney address to ACTU OHS and Workers’ Compensation Conference 2011

April 13, 2011

In a country so wealthy, so clever and so advanced as Australia, why are we prepared to send people to unsafe workplaces every single day?

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Ged Kearney address to Global Employment Relations Forum

March 30, 2011

The Fair Work Act represented a huge step forward in terms of rights for working people.

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Ged Kearney address to ACOSS National Conference

March 29, 2011

It is timely that the topic of this session is ‘Productivity, Population and Participation’ because those subjects touch on a couple of issues that the ACTU and unions have been doing a lot of thinking about recently.

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Tim Lyons opinion piece: Super funds must live up to values on remuneration

March 29, 2011

It is troubling that currently only around a third of industry and like funds disclose the remuneration received by Directors in their annual report. Very few make specific disclosures around CEO pay.

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Ged Kearney address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia

March 23, 2011

Today I would like to share some union solutions to economic growth and higher productivity.

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