![\"Millie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792527493_290_6c9956499c1fcaff5bc3ee06f2fcfa07b4485f924fdaa4ddb2bb54cddb882f66.png\")
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October 20, 2026 \u2014 10:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n The newly elected peak union body president has warned that AI is automating entire jobs, being used for surveillance and making management decisions, pledging to push for greater protections against job losses alongside higher wages and workplace flexibility.<\/p>\n Emma Kingdon, 38, who is based in Melbourne and is one of the youngest people to be elected president of the Australian Council for Trade Unions (ACTU), will begin her term in December as part of a generational transition for the organisation.<\/p>\n In August, the council appointed Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) head Melissa Donnelly<\/a> as secretary, replacing Sally McManus, who left the role in July. Kingdon will take over from Michele O\u2019Neil, who staggered her departure date from McManus by several months to assist with the leadership transition.<\/p>\n Kingdon, who grew up in Perth\u2019s outer suburban Rockingham, where she first worked in a fast-food KFC outlet and joined the retail workers\u2019 union, said the cost of living remained the No.1 issue for working people.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from a working-class family in Rockingham in WA and I get how hard it is to make ends meet, and that is what drives me every day to see workers get ahead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related Article In an interview with this masthead, Kingdon said another major concern was the rapid introduction of AI into workplaces and industries.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s changing jobs by automating some tasks, and in some cases, it\u2019s responsible for the automation of entire jobs,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are issues around employers using it for surveillance, and AI making management decisions on things like rosters.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are whole industries where AI tech bros are stealing creative work and journalists\u2019 work, so there needs to be more protections for workers, and it\u2019s an area that will continue to be a focus of the union movement.\u201d<\/p>\n Kingdon took aim at employers \u2013 especially big businesses \u2013 saying they needed to do a \u201cmuch better job\u201d at consulting workers about changes including AI and job losses.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, NAB has announced that they\u2019re going to be axing two and half thousand jobs,\u201d she said, adding it was \u201coutrageous\u201d in a cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n However, she said there was more that could be done \u201con all levels\u201d, including by the government, which has created an \u201cOffice of AI\u201d and was looking to develop mandatory requirements for large AI data centres.<\/p>\n Kingdon has worked at the United Workers Union, Finance Sector Union, and with the council, including as its national campaigns director focused on driving union membership growth.<\/p>\n The share of Australians holding union membership has fallen from 15 per cent a decade ago, but recovered from a record low to 13 per cent in 2024, driven largely by young workers who Kingdon said were \u201cfeeling like the system is rigged and stacked against them\u201d.<\/p>\n Most recently, Kingdon has been an executive officer for the CFMEU administration after the scandal-plagued union was placed into administration in 2024.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI went there and rolled up my sleeves: I don\u2019t shy away from a challenge,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s been in administration for two years and there\u2019s still work to be done there.\u201d<\/p>\n Kingdon said she would be pushing for higher wage growth and supporting opportunities for workers to win back time. \u201cWhether that\u2019s through working from home, a four-day week or through additional annual leave, that\u2019s obviously been a priority of working people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kingdon, who is a mother of two, said she had \u201cfour great loves\u201d in her life: family, the union movement, the Essendon Football Club and Star Wars.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neil, who will finish her term at the start of December, said Kingdon was a \u201chighly effective and formidable union campaigner\u201d with experience representing workers across a diverse range of industries.<\/p>\n Donnelly said Kingdon was a highly experienced campaigner who had taken on hard challenges and helped overturn bad workplace laws.<\/p>\n \u201c[Kingdon] dealt with some of the toughest corporate bosses in the major banks and has never left a negotiating table or a picket line without getting the best possible outcomes for her members,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/756f19c2a5046cdfd5f6943805670e49bcde0286.jpeg\")
New ACTU president Emma Kingdon. Joe Armao<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792527495_463_f1dfcf21c6f2f8a841ccb217d60d333e1643424b.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Melissa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3c2e08428796a8a94c942afb81d2f07c824e155b.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Millie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792527497_756_6c9956499c1fcaff5bc3ee06f2fcfa07b4485f924fdaa4ddb2bb54cddb882f66.png\")
Millie Muroi<\/a> is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age covering workplace and economics. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra\u2019s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 20, 2026 \u2014 10:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-935323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}