Michele O'Neil

ACTU president O'Neil receiving the Order of Timor-Leste from Francisco Guterres at the celebrations marking the twentieth anniversary of the independence referendum on behalf of the ACTU. In 2018, O'Neil was elected president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). In her first speech as the new president of the ACTU, Michele O'Neil spoke publicly for the first time about being sexually harassed as a teenage waitress, saying that the collective response of her fellow union members and the discipline of her delegate solidified her confidence in unionism as a young employee.

O'Neil was appointed by the Albanese government to the Net Zero Economy Authority Board in 2024 and the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council in 2025. Both roles are due to expire in 2027.

Together with Sally McManus, O'Neil and McManus were the first all-female leadership pair of the ACTU, playing a major role in getting Australian legislation enacted for the right to disconnect and criminalising wage theft,

O'Neil announced that she would resign as president of the ACTU before the end of 2026. O'Neil said that part of the reason for her resignation was that union membership was starting to grow.

Personal life Born in Melbourne, O'Neil is the youngest of five daughters. Her mother left school at 13 to work in a tannery in Melbourne and worked as a waitress, and in various other casual jobs while raising her children. O'Neil's father served in the army, before serving as a public servant and briefly as an Australian Football League (AFL) administrator.

O'Neil credited her parents and four older sisters with introducing her to social justice causes by taking her to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra when she was just 10 and to protest marches as a teenager in support of freeing imprisoned South African anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.