Obituary – Trish Crossin

Many members, officers and staff of NTEU were saddened and shocked by the death this week of NTEU life member Trish Crossin, who died suddenly on April 13 at the age of 70.

Our foundation General Secretary Grahame McCulloch reflects below on the importance of Trish’s contribution to the NTEU, and on the scope of her work in support of higher education, trade unionism and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

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Trish was a significant figure in the early history of NTEU. Appointed as the first full-time Industrial Officer in the Northern Territory for the Union of Australian College Academics (UACA) in 1990 she helped transform the local higher education industrial relations landscape, playing a pivotal role in the union mergers which created the NTEU and leading the move to enterprise bargaining at Charles Darwin University and its predecessor institutions. She became NTEU Division Secretary in 1996. In her nearly ten year tenure NTEU membership increased by more than 100% and the union gained influence and recognition beyond its size.

Trish was a fierce advocate for Indigenous communities in the Territory, had a lifelong commitment to feminism and women’s rights and was a proud member of the Labor Party left. She established the NT Working Women’s Centre and was its founding Chair.

In 1998 she was elected as the first woman Senator for the Northern Territory and became the first NTEU member to serve in the Australian Parliament. As a member and sometime Chair of the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee, Trish had an unstinting commitment to the public higher education system and to the role of trade unions as a cornerstone of Australian society, and provided invaluable support and advice to NTEU on key issues.

She left the Senate in 2013 in controversial circumstances prompted by the fallout of the ongoing Gillard-Rudd leadership dispute. Many felt she was unfairly treated by Julia Gillard who intervened to deny Trish fresh Senate preselection for the 2013 election.

In her post politics career Trish continued her involvement in tertiary education in a variety of roles including as Chair of the Gordon Institute Board and became a director of the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2023.

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We give thanks for the life and enormous contribution of Trish Crossin and mourn her passing. Our sincere condolences to Trish’s family and to the many others whose lives she touched.

Funeral and memorial details:

– Dr Alison Barnes, NTEU National President
– Dr Damien Cahill, NTEU General Secretary
– Gabe Gooding, NTEU National Assistant Secretary