Legal fight over QTU election fails with Industrial Registrar decision

A Queensland Teachers’ Union election dispute has concluded after the Industrial Registrar rejected claims of irregularities, ending a lengthy legal battle within union ranks.

QTU election candidate Madonna Johanson contested the outcome of the vote in 2024. Pictures: LinkedIn

A long-running industrial dispute over last year’s Queensland Teachers’ Union election has come to a head with the state’s Industrial Registrar rejecting a member’s bid to trigger a formal election inquiry.

At the heart of the legal clash was a claim by election candidate Madonna Johanson that campaigning restrictions, internal policy changes, and the conduct of incumbents during the postal ballot period amounted to “irregularities” under the Industrial Relations Act.

Ms Johanson was excluded in the first count for the honorary vice-president role with 1115 votes, with Joshua Cleary winning that position with 3444 votes after preferences, ahead of Bec Barrigos on 2746.

Cresta Richardson was elected president and Leah Olsson vice-president (full-time).

In findings handed down on July 3, Industrial Registrar Madonna Shelley refused Ms Johanson’s application to refer the matter to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

Registrar Shelley said the application did not identify any “irregularities” within the meaning of the legislation and could not satisfy the statutory test for referral.

She said she was “not satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to inquire” into alleged irregularities that “may have affected, or may affect, the election result”.

The ruling brings an end, at least for now, to one of the most procedurally complex election disputes in recent QTU history.

An image from Madonna Johanson’s social media during last year’s QTU election campaign. Picture: LinkedIn

The case passed through multiple directions hearings, legal representation applications, interlocutory submissions and even an appeal to the QIRC’s full bench which, in November 2024, found that Registrar Shelley had erred in failing to grant leave for legal representation.

That earlier ruling sent the matter back to the Registrar, who considered a revised and extensive set of submissions from Ms Johanson in March and April 2025, setting out 21 alleged irregularities in the union’s 2023 election for the senior office-bearer roles of president, vice-president (full-time) and vice-president (honorary).

In her conclusion, Registrar Shelley said that Ms Johanson’s complaints, such as campaign messaging in union journals, changes to doorknocking policy, and social media tactics, were lawful electioneering conduct that was not subject to inquiry.

“An irregularity does not include electioneering,” she said.

Perhaps most notably, Registrar Shelley rejected Ms Johanson’s main legal argument, which proposed that a wider meaning of “irregularity” should be adopted by relying on external reports such as the 1991 Cooke Inquiry, finding that interpretation was inconsistent with binding court precedent and the wording of the Industrial Relations Act.

“I am not satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to inquire whether there has been an irregularity in the election … and that the circumstances justify an election inquiry.”

The Queensland Teachers Union, a respondent in the case, made limited factual rebuttals but argued there was no “reasonable possibility” that the complaints, even if proven, could have changed the result of an election where Ms Johanson was excluded in the first count for honorary vice-president.

Registrar Shelley noted that none of the allegations involved any breach by the Electoral Commission of Queensland, whose Returning Officer had certified that the election was conducted in accordance with the QTU’s rules and had reported no discrepancies.

The July 3 decision came after two earlier rulings about how the election dispute process should be handled and was the third decision related to the matter.

While she was critical of the union’s internal governance, Registrar Shelley made clear this application had reached the end of the road at least under the current statutory framework.

Originally published as Legal fight over QTU election fails with Industrial Registrar decision