http://www.ozpolitic.com/electoral-reform/compulsory-unionism.html

So what is the government’s role in all of this? Rather than supporting compulsory unionism or abolishing it, they should merely mandate that all unions with compulsory membership create a more direct and democratic way for members to adjust union fees.

A simple solution to all of these problems is to make each union election a referendum on union fees. This would provide sufficient motivation for people to turn up and vote. Even if they didn’t know who the candidates were, they would have an opinion on whether the fees should go up or down. This could be combined with measures intended to stabilise union income, for example limiting the annual change in income to 10%, or by making the rate of change proportional to the demand for change – for example if 53.7% of members voted for an increase in fees and 46.3% for a decrease, the fees would go up by 3.7%.

Although the topic is "Compulsory Unionism", which is what caught my eye, the actual point, which is about a more democratic way of setting union membership fees and how they should be adjusted, is actually quite clever, and pertinent in this election year as a large potion of the ALP's funding comes from the Union movement. As both the ALP and the Coalition have become more centrist and both have embraced similar versions of "Economic Rationalism" orthodoxy, the old "class warfare" in the UK, Oz, and NZ is essentially redundant. I have belonged to unions, and I have sat at the "executive roundtable" fighting my fellow managers about job losses. People are naive if they think they don't need unions. Your suggestion about union membership fees is brilliant and would placate many disgruntled union members.

Compulsory unionism is unacceptable anywhere but abhorrent in a democracy. There is absolutely no justification for it.
Unions have their place but they need to be run on democratic and non-compulsory lines with a secret ballot for all votes.
Interesting way of setting fees - would be even more interesting if donations to political parties (or should I say the political party?) were preferably disallowed altogether but, at very least, required to be voted on by the rank and file. Other political rantings (such as the misleading advertisements against the IR policies - yes a senior union official informed me that they were designed to be deliberately misleading in order to get the union message across) - these political rantings need to be banned altogether and replaced with accurate information.
Doubt this will suit the unionists though - they have run the ALP for far too long.

Bl&*dy hell Communicat there is no such thing as compulsory unionism.
Yes rat bags try it on but it is illegal has been for years and as a union official I say so it should be.
However rank and file should have much more say in running unions, the door is open they can have a say, but few will.
My personal view, mine, not any union, has always been fees to the lower income end be half fees.
Yes some can not afford to be in a union, constantly I am informed that my view is wrong, the ACTU once sent a girl who had never gone without a feed in her life to tell me no Australian could not afford full fees.
One day a union will be brave enough to cut fees for low income workers, please do not waste effort in telling me about casual fees I know.
That union if it truly serves its members will make a net gain in income as new members flood in, good thread wrong title.
Oh can anyone point to one single union official who did not rise from the rank and file?
In a way unions are run by rank and file.

Now now did I say unionism was compulsory - no, just that it should not be compulsory. There should be no coercion whatsoever to join a union (but of course there are still some 'no ticket, no start' situations and unions still claim right of entry, especially OH&S grounds, when it suits their agenda).
Rank and file? Not too sure about that - without secret ballots if you don't vote the way the hierarchy want you to vote then you might as well forget going up the ladder. No wonder union leaders don't like the idea of the secret ballot.
I think what concerns many people who might otherwise join a union is the forced donation to a political party not of their choice. People have wised up to this and it disturbs them.

Australia had compulsory student unionism until recently.