David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The theatrics of those opposite that we've seen over the last 24 hours are nothing more than a desperate attempt to take attention away from the very core of the issue that we are talking about—the very core of what has happened in the last 24 hours and why those raids were undertaken. The values and principles of the union movement have been shown up because a statutory authority saw fit to raid a union because they failed to provide the information that was required of them. Let's talk about the values and principles of the organisation and their link to the Labor Party. How can you say, in any fairness, that a fair organisation would do that? If they have nothing to hide, then why would they undertake those actions in such a public way? The reality is that this MPI is nothing more than just cheap theatrics to hide the Leader of the Opposition from the questions that he needs to answer about the actions that he took when he was part of the union movement—and the union movement and Labor are so intrinsically tied.

The standards and values of the CFMEU are seen in my home state of Queensland. We're seeing now the actions of the CFMEU at Oakey Creek up in Queensland, where they are saying the most abhorrent things about men's and women's children. You come in here with the sanctimony and the way in which you criticise this side for the way that we handle ourselves, yet you sit there and take money from the CFMEU and you defend the actions of these deplorable human beings who would dare to utter those words. Would you not hold them to account? If you had the morals and the values to stand up to that behaviour, then you should do that today. But you don't. You turn your back—you turn your back on the Australian people and you turn your back on the workers at Oakey Creek.

What a disgrace that you would tie yourself to an organisation that would say deplorable things about children. I'm a father of three young boys and I can tell you I would be absolutely disgusted if someone made those accusations, those assertions, about my children. If you are parents and you look deeply inside your heart instead of putting your heads down in shame, which you should, then you should stand up here today and say that those are not the actions of proper human beings that anybody should be associated with. That is an absolute disgrace to be associated with that sort of action. You should stand up and do that today, as should the Leader of the Opposition, not have a distraction. The Labor Party members are running around trying to distract everybody about the real core of the issues here, about the values and principles of the union movement in this country.

But let's think about what could happen if the Labor Party were to be put into parliament. Let's think about what impacts that would have on our nation, the absolute deplorable state that we will see in our economy and the values and principles that they will bring.

Ms Madeleine King interjecting—

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