Van Badham writes in The Guardian (6.1.16) that the Trade Union Royal Commission was desperately crucial for the Liberals to fix the image of union thugs in the minds of the electorate, because the window to do so with any visual resemblance to reality is closing fast.
‘The problem that the Liberals have is that today’s union leader looks ever less like the vulgar caricatures of rough and potentially criminal men on which the conservative fear mongering depends. A rise in female leadership and the diversity of social backgrounds from which they come has delivered to the union movement a face that looks far more like Australia’s than the Coalition’s own cabinet. Here are some of the powerful union women destroying the Liberals’ “thug myth” forever.’