Tony Maher’s remarkable 27-year tenure as General President of the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) is coming to an end, with Tony announcing he will retire on December 31 this year. His dedicated, principled and strategic leadership has left our union in a strong position to meet the challenges of the future.
In just the last few years, Tony steered the MEU to three key achievements: independence from the CFMEU, Same Job Same Pay legislation to address the labour hire rort, and coordinated support for power station workers facing closure.
Tony showed great foresight and determination in securing a path to independence for our union when staying part of the amalgamated CFMEU became untenable. It was a complex and controversial undertaking requiring political and legal problem-solving; but as more evidence of criminal activity from the Construction Division emerges, history has shown that his judgment was impeccable. Our members voted 98% in favour of our demerger and have proudly embraced our identity as the Mining and Energy Union.
In the face of widespread exploitation of labour hire workers in the coal industry, Tony led our union’s ambitious litigation strategy to end the ‘permanent casual’ rort and then fight for a political solution, which resulted in Same Job Same Pay laws. So far we’ve won $150 million in pay rises at coal mines in NSW and Queensland with these laws, with permanent employment on the rise.
And as a leader of coal workers, Tony was early to recognise that our industries would be significantly impacted by global efforts to decarbonise the economy to address climate change. He has fought for policies to ensure coal workers and communities are supported and not left to pay the price for economic change. While this is still a work in progress, we now have a coordinated national authority tasked with supporting workers at closing power stations and investing in diversification of our mining regions.
Tony leaves our union strong and growing. We have grown strongly in the last 12 months to our highest membership numbers ever.
This is a reflection of long-term national leadership that has respected our ground-up democratic structures built around our workplace-based Lodges; and backed our members to stand up for a fair go. We have a hard-earned reputation for responsible militancy. We will take on the employers in our industries who include some of the biggest multinationals in the world, but we aren’t reckless with members’ livelihoods.
Tony was elected as General President of the union in the early days of John Howard’s WorkChoices era, which triggered nationally significant strikes and lockouts in the mining industry including against Rio Tinto in the Hunter Valley. I was on the front line of this years long fight to protect our rights to organise collectively at work and I know how tough it was. These experiences contributed to Tony’s widely respected judgement and sense of perspective. His approach is to ‘negotiate when you can, fight when you must’. They’re words to live by, but it’s knowing the right time for each that is the real challenge.
Tony has been a friend and mentor to many in our union and he will be missed. But he is leaving a strong union with an experienced leadership team in place. General Secretary Grahame Kelly, Singleton local and former Secretary of the Northern Mining and NSW Energy Division, will take over as General President in 2026 ahead of elections for all positions in 2028. Tony leaves a blueprint for union leadership with courage and integrity that we will all strive to uphold.
Robin Williams
District President MEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy
