Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My father once told me that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The member for Moreton should take that on board, because you cannot tart up voluntary or compulsory student unionism in the clothing of higher education legislation and not expect the Australian people to see through it for what it is—a cynical attempt at putting back dollars and cents into the Labor student union mould. Everyone, apart from Young Labor, thinks this is a rotten idea. Every student union type movement on our campuses, apart from Young Labor, thinks this is an appalling piece of policy. It is not hard to work out who benefits from such a policy piece—you simply look at who wants it. I look across the House at the member for Moreton and others, former full-time union officials, and I wonder why they agree with their counterparts, Young Labor. Considering that the Young Labor movement in the election before last gave something like a quarter of a million dollars to the Labor campaign, it is not hard to see who benefits.

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