McManus announced her departure last month, on the same day ACTU president, Michele O\u2019Neil, revealed plans to step down as well. Anthony Albanese<\/a> described both \u2013 the first all-female leadership team in the ACTU\u2019s 99-year history \u2013 as \u201cgiants of the labour movement\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n McManus has helped reshape Australia\u2019s industrial landscape, pushing the Albanese government and business on a worker-friendly agenda.<\/p>\n Along with O\u2019Neil, she has helped lead campaigns for same job, same pay protections, laws giving workers the right to disconnect, wage theft criminalisation and ensuring minimum pay, insurance and safety standards for gig economy workers.<\/p>\n Her tenure has spanned the Turnbull, Morrison and Albanese governments, economic disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic, Labor\u2019s jobs and skills summit, allegations of corruption and lawlessness by union leaders, including the CFMEU, and, a year ago this week, the productivity roundtable convened by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.<\/p>\n \u2018Giants of the labour movement\u2019 \u2026 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president, Michele O’Neil (L), and secretary, Sally McManus, during an economic reform roundtable in 2025. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n McManus says some of her closest held victories include wage rises for low-paid workers<\/a>, help for women and children affected by domestic violence and helping strengthen key industries including early childhood education and aged care.<\/p>\n But the high profile role has brought pressures.<\/p>\n Since that first ABC TV interview on the day she was elected in March 2017, McManus has faced the \u201cinner most horribleness\u201d of critics \u2013 online and in real life.<\/p>\n She has received death threats and tirades, a darker side of the job McManus says she tries to ignore.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say it has become 10 times, maybe 20 times, worse, and that\u2019s got a lot to do with what happened with X and also just the continued monetisation of social media.<\/p>\n \u201cBack 10 years ago \u2026 you could actually have communities of like-minded people on social media, and not have to experience all the horribleness.\u201d<\/p>\n The job isn\u2019t done, McManus says.<\/p>\n She points to the rapidly shifting reality of work, including AI threatening the rights of employees. Having long advocated for tax reform in Australia, McManus wants more work on intergenerational equity and help for vulnerable people.<\/p>\n She nominates Pauline Hanson\u2019s growing political support as a priority for the labour movement, warning the One Nation leader would end unfair dismissal laws if the party ever secured power.<\/p>\n
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Minimum wage increase of 5.2% welcomed by Anthony Albanese – video<\/p>\n