A senior Young Labor figure who has previously posed for photos with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been suspended from his job at the Australian Transport Workers Union after organising an event celebrating the anniversary of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk's death. William Yang, the former Sydney University Labor president, was identified as the owner of the parody account "Australian Child Labor", which had advertised "celebration drinks" marking a year since Kirk's fatal shooting, alongside an AI-generated image depicting Kirk with Albanese. The union condemned the event as "repugnant" and confirmed Yang would not attend and had been suspended.

Kirk, 31, was shot dead while speaking at Utah Valley University on 10 September last year, with Tyler Robinson, 23, having pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder. The revelation comes a day after Communications Minister Anika Wells called for stronger protections against harmful online content for young Australians, and follows earlier controversy over the same account posting a video mocking the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a stance at odds with Foreign Minister Penny Wong's repeated condemnation of the killings.