A union representing university staff in Australia appears to have inflated its membership numbers in evidence to a parliamentary inquiry.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said in an April 2026 submission to the Senate Education and Employment References Committee it had 29,000 members.
However, at present on the union’s website it says it has 27,000 members.
The NTEU annual report for the year ended June 2025 claims membership of 27,848.
Three different figures for three different audiences.
Have there been 2000 member resignations between April this year and now?
Potentially the Senate inquiry has been misled.
This is the same union that is unable to fill the majority of its own committee roles in universities around Australia.
The Australian Electoral Commission this year conducted elections for NTEU committee and other roles at higher education institutions and more than 75 per cent of roles were unfilled, raising questions about the union’s capacity to apply appropriate governance to its operations.
The NTEU needed to fill almost 220 positions on university-based committees, but could fill only 53 through the ballot. Many branch secretary and branch president roles were vacant.
At some universities, not one position attracted a nomination, including national council representatives and branch secretaries.
The Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA) said the union needed to explain if it misled the Senate inquiry or its governance processes involve more guess work than science.
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Contact details:
Craig Laughton | (he/him)
Executive Director | Australian Higher Education Industrial Association |
phone: 0477 799 149
[email protected] | www.aheia.edu.au |
