Public servants’ Together union leading Queensland election campaign splurge

Together, under the banner of ‘The Coalition of Working Families’, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to help sandbag key seats at the October 26 poll.

Ali King's election campaign material sponsored by Together union's Coalition of Working Families.

The public servants’ union is bankrolling Steven Miles’s Queensland re-election campaign, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to help sandbag key seats at the October 26 poll.

An analysis of declarations to the Electoral Commission of Queensland reveals the Together union has handed the ALP $128,500 in the past six months through political donations and gifts in kind.

Together, the Queensland branch of the Australian Services Union which has 30,000 members statewide, is also spearheading the state’s biggest third party campaign behind the banner of “The Coalition of Working Families”.

The union, where the Premier and ALP state secretary Kate Flanders both previously worked, is running advertisements devoid of traditional Labor red livery and makes no mention of any political party, or union.

This will be the first state election fought under strict new donation laws capping major parties’ total campaign spending at $8.92m, or $95,964.09 for each electorate.

Registered third parties – such as unions and lobby groups – are allowed to spend up to $1m during the election period, a rule the Liberal National Party claims is a “fin­ancial gerrymander” because it does not have an organised supporter base such as Labor’s union movement.

There are now 34 third parties registered for the election, including 17 Labor-aligned unions. Third parties will be required to disclose their campaign spending 15 weeks after election day.

Together ASU branch secretary Alex Scott in 2018. Picture: Sarah Marshall

The Together union, headed by Mr Miles’s long-time friend Alex Scott, is pouring its resources into marginal Labor-held seats including Transport Minister Bart Mellish’s electorate of Aspley on Brisbane’s northern fringe.

Mr Mellish, who worked as federal senator Anthony Chisholm’s chief of staff before he was elected in 2017, holds Aspley on a 5.2 per cent margin and faces a tough fight against LNP candidate Amanda Cooper. The former vice-president of the LNP quit her job as Brisbane City Council’s infrastructure committee chair to contest Aspley in 2020 but was defeated.

Together union resources are also being directed to Tourism Minister Michael Healy (Cairns, 5.6 per cent), Ali King (Pumicestone, 5.27 per cent), Kim Richards (Redlands, 3.9 per cent), Craig Crawford (Barron River, 3.1 per cent) and Jason Hunt (Caloundra, 2.5 per cent).

ECQ disclosures show the union has funnelled $16,531 into Ms Richard’s campaign since caps began in April, through donations and gifts in kind such as catering costs for her fundraisers.

Unions have tipped more than $320,000 into the ALP coffers since April, which does not include their third party spending.

The United Workers Union, the most politically powerful union in the state, is also gearing up for a big-spending third party campaign to protect its MPs, with state secretary Gary Bullock’s power base at serious risk of erosion. Sources say UWU will be fuelling the campaigns of minister Meaghan Scanlon (Gaven, 7.75 per cent), minister Mick de Brenni (Springwood, 8.3 per cent), minister Nikki Boyd (Pine Rivers, 6.7 per cent), assistant minister Ms King (Pumicestone 5.27 per cent) and backbencher Tom Smith (Bundaberg, 0.01 per cent).

The Australian’s ECQ donation analysis reveals the Labor campaign to receive the biggest fin­ancial backing so far is Anne Baker’s in the central Queensland seat of Burdekin

Ms Baker, who was mayor of one of the country’s largest coalmining regions for 12 years, is contesting the LNP-held seat of Burdekin (Dale Last, 7.05 per cent).

The Mining and Energy Union has given $120,448 to the ALP since April, $28,000 of that directed into Burdekin.

A Young LNP-linked group, “Australians for Prosperity”, registered as a third party last week, has erected anti-Labor billboards in inner-Brisbane electorates.

The executive director of the group is former federal Liberal MP and Brisbane City Councillor Julian Simmonds, who told The Australian the billboards were “just the start” of what is planned for the campaign.

Australians for Prosperity’s campaign manager is former NSW Liberal staffer Will Dempsey and advisory board members are Moscow and Melbourne-educated economist and Sky News commentator Nataliya Ilyushina, Liberal candidate for the federal Victorian seat of Macnamara Benson Saulo, TikTok influencer Jack Tossol, Queensland Young LNP president Alexandra Sinenko and federal Young Liberals president and former Peter Dutton staffer Darcy Creighton.