Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. In the last fortnight we've seen some of the worst examples of bad CFMEU behaviour that we've seen in a very long time—in fact, probably more than we've ever experienced before—at the Glencore picket at Oaky North in her electorate. The threats being shouted by the CFMEU at the Glencore workers are, quite frankly, beyond the pale. They would shock most members of this House—calling out to employees legitimately going to work that they wish they would have head-on collisions on their way home from work, but even worse than that, saying that these CFMEU workers would rape the children of the workers at Oaky North at the Glencore precinct. I know that the Labor Party's prepared to put up with most stuff from the CFMEU. They're prepared to tolerate almost anything, but there are many people in this House with children and probably with grandchildren. How could anybody in this House imagine a threat being made by a union official to them, going into their workplace, that anyone would rape any one of our children, because we were going about our business? I would ask the Labor members to simply pause for a moment and imagine how horrific that is for the father or mother of any child. These are real threats. I've seen the videos. I've seen the Facebook posts.

Ms Chesters interjecting—

The member for Bendigo continues to defend the CFMEU in this place. When is enough going to be enough for the Leader of the Opposition to stand up to the CFMEU? We know that he has taken $8 million in donations from the CFMEU since he became leader of the Labor Party. It's time for the Labor Party to say no to any more donations from the CFMEU. It's time to get the CFMEU off the national conference, the state conference, the preselection processes, the policy fora of the Labor Party. Bob Hawke had the backbone to stand up to the BLF; it's time this leader of the Labor Party had the backbone to stand up to the CFMEU, because it goes to a question of: 'If this Leader of the Opposition's not prepared to stand up to the CFMEU, despite all their heinous crimes, how will he stand up for Australia's national interests on the overseas stage? How will he stand up for Australia's national interests in Australia and beyond if he's not even prepared to say "Enough is enough" to the CFMEU?'

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