William Yang #

Introduction #

William Yang is a former president of the Labor Club at the University of Sydney and an employee of the Australian Transport Workers Union (TWU) who became the subject of national controversy in September 2026 after a left-wing parody account he owns published an invitation to “celebration drinks” marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The post, which has since been deleted, advertised “1st Kirkversary Celebration Drinks” at the Forest Lodge Hotel on September 10 — the date of Kirk’s killing last year — alongside an AI-generated image showing Kirk grinning beside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. According to the Daily Mail, the TWU suspended Yang from his employment once the event came to light; Good Oil reported instead that the union “hurriedly sacked him (so they say),” and the two characterizations have not been publicly reconciled.

Background Information #

Yang is described by both outlets as a prominent figure among young Labor activists in Australia. He served as president of the Labor Club at the University of Sydney, and according to the Daily Mail he attended the 50th Labor Federal Conference in Adelaide, where he published an account of his time there, including discussions with elected Labor officials, in the University of Sydney student publication Honi Soit. Good Oil similarly called him a “prominent figure among young Labor activists” and noted that he had posted selfies of himself shaking hands with the prime minister. On his personal social media accounts, Yang shared a photograph with Albanese in 2022 as well as images from a Labor event as recently as 2026, per the Daily Mail. He works for the TWU, according to his LinkedIn profile as cited by the Daily Mail.

The parody account behind the incident, “Australian Child Labor,” was identified by both outlets as being owned by Yang. Beyond the Kirk anniversary post, the account has also published content mocking the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations. No criminal charges have been brought against Yang and no court or regulator has adjudicated any conduct in this matter. What is contested here is how the two reporting outlets characterize the employment consequence: the Daily Mail reports that Yang was “suspended from his employment” by the TWU, while Good Oil says the union “hurriedly sacked him (so they say).” The TWU has not publicly clarified which outcome applies, and Yang has issued no public defense statement in either source.

In a now-deleted social media post, the “Australian Child Labor” account published an invitation to “celebration drinks” marking the anniversary of Kirk’s death. “1st Kirkversary Celebration Drinks,” the post read, alongside a grinning image of the US activist with Albanese that appears to have been generated using AI. The date was set for the anniversary of Kirk’s death at the Forest Lodge Hotel. Kirk, 31, co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in the neck while addressing thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10, 2025; the shooter, Tyler Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including aggravated murder.

The same account had earlier published material mocking the Tiananmen Square massacre. In November 2024, it posted a video showing two figures, including Yang, dancing in the square and posing as though directing traffic, captioned “Me when a tank is driving towards me,” per the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail noted that this contrasts with the position of senior Labor figures, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who marked the 35th anniversary in June 2024 by saying that “in Tiananmen Square, 35 years ago, the world witnessed the use of brutal force against student protesters in Beijing.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

A spokesperson for the TWU told the Daily Mail that the union “has been made aware that one of its employees promoted this event on social media,” adding: “The event is repugnant, it should be cancelled, the person in question will not be attending, and has been suspended from his employment.” A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said separately, “The event is abhorrent and must be cancelled.” The Daily Mail added that it understands Yang has now been suspended as a member by the NSW Labor Party.

Good Oil framed the episode as part of a broader pattern of what it called violent extremism among Labor supporters, publishing under the headline “Labor Activists Celebrate Murder and Death Threats” with the subhead “It’s not ‘violent extremism’ when they do it.” The article paired Yang’s case with that of Alex Turner, a 20-year-old Labor supporter who, in an apparently now-deleted Instagram post, called for the “Assassination of Pauline Hanson now!” It also quoted former ADF Chief David Morrison’s maxim — “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” — in asking whether Labor would hold itself to the standards it imposes on others.

Current Status #

As of the coverage dates, the post promoting the Kirk anniversary drinks had been deleted, and the TWU had taken action against Yang — characterized as a suspension by the Daily Mail and as a dismissal, hedged with “(so they say),” by Good Oil. The Daily Mail reported that Yang has also been suspended as a member by the NSW Labor Party. Neither outlet reported any further disciplinary outcome, and neither carries a public defense statement from Yang. The identification of Yang as the person behind the account came a day after Communications Minister Anika Wells used Question Time to call for stronger protections for young Australians from harmful and extremist content on social media, saying, “We want to protect and improve the lives and wellbeing of young people, and the social media ban is just the starting point.”

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The immediate consequence was professional: Yang lost access to his TWU role, whether by suspension or dismissal depending on the outlet consulted, and per the Daily Mail he was additionally suspended as a member of the NSW Labor Party. For a self-described prominent figure among young Labor activists who had written about discussions with elected Labor officials at the party’s federal conference, the episode put his standing within the movement in direct tension with his own public postings. Good Oil used the case to argue that Labor’s youth wing operates by different standards than those the government invokes in its social-media censorship legislation, closing with the question of whether Labor will “march right on past the standards they impose on everyone else.” Whether Yang retains any role at the TWU or in Young Labor has not been clarified in either source.