Roughly 500,000 nurses, midwives and teachers feel that they are being politically and financially exploited by a small cadre of left-wing union bosses. Membership fees, hundreds of dollars above the reasonable cost of service, are funnelled into affiliations fees and other avenues, ending up supporting political activists.

They say democracy dies in darkness. Clearly, it can be buried alive in bureaucracy and drowned in misappropriated money.

Whatever happened to unions backing workers? Presumably, that is the central purpose of a trade union.

What happened to the basic principle that the union works for its members, not the other way around?

Alas, here we are.

In modern Australia, it’s the everyday union members who are made to swear allegiance to the career union officials who are all too happy to spend other peoples’ money doggedly pursuing the Voice Referendum Campaign.

Social pressure, manpower, and financial support are all being offered to the ‘Yes’ Campaign at the behest of union bosses – and to the dismay of grassroots members.

That’s why tens of thousands have opted out of the left-aligned unions to join the apolitical Red Unions, like the Nurses’ Professional Association of Australia and the Teachers’ Professional Association of Australia.

The Voice Referendum certainly isn’t the first time that left-aligned monopoly unions have sought to use their members as political pawns, and their fees as nothing more than campaign donations.

However, this is perhaps the starkest example of unions straying from their purpose.

Lock-step with the federal government, as they were during the now-debunked Covid mandates, the biggest unions in the country are throwing their members’ hard-earned money behind a cause that at least half are against, if we are to take the word of recent polls.

Take Queensland for example – where support for the Voice has slumped to just 34 per cent.

The General Secretary of the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) penned an editorial titled, Voice. Treaty. Truth. It’s Union business.

‘While the new agreement does go some way towards reconciliation by securing a salary structure that begins to reflect the vital work of community teachers and providing access to leave for sorry business, if we are to truly commit to reconciliation and safe and healthy workplaces for everyone, then Executive was clear that we need to be involved in Voice. Treaty. Truth. and accept the invitation from the Uluru Statement of the Heart to help secure a Voice to Parliament.

‘Recently I’ve been asked why the Voice to Parliament is Union business. Our job is to secure improved working conditions and salaries for members and to ensure members’ health and safety. But how do we ensure that all members are safe if we don’t campaign for all members? As a Union we attempt to provide a voice to the democratic structures of the QTU by having a First Nations committee and QTU Executive delegate who are consulted on issues that specifically affect First Nations members and their employment.’

She states that in order to ensure all their members are safe, they must campaign for all members. Except the roughly 60 per cent of members who disagree, apparently.

The nature of a political campaign is that there is opposition.

Different people have different views and values. What’s right for one member is wrong in the eyes of another.

However, all normal Australians are united in their annoyance with the smug self-righteous moralising from government officials, unions, sporting codes, corporations and celebrities. Funded by you.

Union members don’t expect their fees to be funnelled into political campaigns. They rightfully expect you to back them in when it comes to EB’s, legal representation, insurance and industrial support.

Paying staff, campaigning, custom printing, custom t-shirts, merchandise and events. These things are not cheap. The relentless barrage of propaganda (constant, harassing emails and calls to the membership) is not pleasant.

There is a concerted effort by executives at unions across the country to pour resources into this political issue. Many of them, like the QTU, point to the adoption of the ‘Close the Gap’ initiative in the education sector as justification.

However, that has been one of the key points of conflict in the broader Voice debate – if the passing of the proposed referendum would help close the gap.

Which brings it back to a matter of political opinion.

Although, given the departmental saturation of education in our country, this is hardly surprising. Bureaucrats have become more concerned about following the directives of the Department of Education than teaching students how to read and write.

This centralisation isn’t confined to just the education system.

Our health system has long been run in the capital cities, plagued by a focus on abstract political issues, above the day-to-day realities that nurses, midwives and other medical professionals face.

The ANMF (QNMU in Queensland) has created very detailed sections of their website advocating for the ‘Yes’ vote, and listing all the reasons they are supporting it. The first of which details a ‘fair democratic process’ of a consensus being reached within its own First Nation’s Branch.

I wonder if this means they’re only taking money from that branch’s membership to fund their campaigning…? Of course not.

All this, and plenty more from other unions, to support a political cause that at least half of the membership disagrees with.

So, tell me again what happened to fighting for all your members?

The reality is, this isn’t a fight that union members want to be part of. Some will vote ‘Yes’, some will vote ‘No’ – they’re all capable of making their own judgement on October 14.

However, what’s become increasingly clear is that it’s not their members the union bosses care about – it’s the Labor Party members sitting in Parliament.