ACTU secretary Sally McManus and president Michele O'Neil announced on Monday night they will step down from the ACTU, ending an eight-year run as the first all-female leadership team in the organisation's 99-year history The Guardian.

The ACTU is the peak body for Australian unions — think of it as the head office that coordinates the efforts of unions across different industries. McManus, 54, will leave in August 2026. O'Neil, 64, will leave before the end of the year, staying on to help the new secretary settle in The Guardian; The Age.

The timing is staggered, and deliberately so. McManus goes first; O'Neil stays to manage the handover rather than leaving the building empty. A gap at the top could let rival unions push their own agendas, so a months-long transition keeps things steady.

McManus and O'Neil took over in 2017. Over eight years they pushed through a string of changes to workplace law: the right to ignore work calls and emails after hours, rules making sure labour-hire workers get paid the same as permanent staff doing the same job, making wage theft a crime, and setting minimum pay and safety standards for gig economy workers like food delivery riders The Guardian. In their farewell video, McManus pointed to union membership growth and more than 47 new workplace rights secured under their watch.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved quickly to praise the pair, calling them personal friends and "giants of the labour movement." He credited their leadership with significant wage increases in undervalued sectors, the gender pay gap at a record low, and union membership growing for the first time in decades The Guardian.

The broader context here is worth noting. The Albanese government's workplace policies and the ACTU's wish list have been closely aligned, and Albanese's framing of the departures as a victory lap rather than a retreat suggests the government wants that policy legacy locked in before any new leader changes direction.

O'Neil appeared on ABC Radio on Tuesday morning and said new leadership would be "the best thing for workers" and "the best thing for the union movement" The Guardian. That is a notable thing to say. Leaders stepping down rarely volunteer that their departure is good for the movement unless they are trying to get ahead of talk that it isn't.

The leadership change comes at a pointed political moment. The ACTU recently started targeting Pauline Hanson and One Nation as the biggest political threat to Labor The Guardian. That shift — away from the Coalition and toward right-populist minor parties — tells you the political environment the new leadership will inherit is not the same one McManus and O'Neil walked into. The workplace reforms of the past term are largely done and dusted. The next fight is electoral, and the target has moved.

For the government, the departures remove two of its most effective outside advocates at a time when politics is widening beyond the usual Labor-versus-Coalition contest. For the union movement, the question is whether a new leader can keep the different unions working together while pivoting to take on a threat that some unions may not see as their main fight.

The succession process itself will be the first real test. The ACTU secretary is elected by the executive, which is shaped by the relative size and influence of the affiliated unions. McManus's successor will need majority support across a diverse and sometimes prickly membership, from the CFMEU to the SDA. Whoever gets the job will inherit a record of achievement that is substantial but largely complete, and a political fight that is only just beginning.