John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Can I just remind the House that this return signed by Brother Joseph is to the Australian Electoral Commission and that the Australian Electoral Commission, the last time I checked, was responsible for Commonwealth electoral matters and not for electoral matters in the state of Western Australia. So if Brother Joseph believes there was a federal destination for this money, are we seriously to believe this tortuous, tortured and sneaky explanation that has come from the Leader of the Opposition about this money? The truth of the matter is that the Leader of the Opposition has once again contorted the truth. He has been less than candid, he has been very tricky and he is so far in with the likes of McDonald and Reynolds that he has to resort to those devices. As to what he is trying to do today with this meaningless stunt of having McDonald expelled from the Australian Labor Party—and it is a meaningless stunt—if the Leader of the Opposition wanted to demonstrate how tough he is with the unions he would dump the legislation that would bring back the thugs.

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