Sally McManus is a campaign genius. She’d better not be retiring

July 28, 2026 — 4:15pm

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I was minding my own old lady business in 2012. Mostly. Sure, things around me pissed me off, but mainly I just complained to friends. I was perpetually grumpy with no real way of clapping back at relentless attacks on women. Then, sometime in 2012, I met someone who really knew how to deal with dickheads. Not only did I meet her; I somehow turned her into my boss, at least in my mind. Best boss ever.

That woman, Sally McManus, is stepping down from her role as secretary of the ACTU, Australia’s peak union body. She’s a fearless leader. Her video responding to hideous Pauline Hanson is one of the smartest moves I’ve seen. And more importantly than that, she’s worked to improve the lives of workers in this country.

Here’s what she did for me.

Sally McManus is a grassroots campaign brain. She is the kind of person who could build a grassroots movement – and build the faith of everyone in that moment.

For decades in media and elsewhere, men wielded power as if it belonged to them. One bloke said women were “destroying the joint”. That phrase became a defining category of rage for women. Women were, indeed, wanting to destroy the joint – the joint which........

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