Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The first the minister for industrial relations knew of this—no, he's the new minister for immigration, and congratulations to him for being appointed to that role and cleaning up the disastrous mess left by Minister Giles—but I digress. The fact is that the minister had complete and absolute knowledge of what was happening because these matters have been before the Federal Court, as was pointed out before.

We know that since 2003 the CFMEU and its officials have broken workplace laws on more than 2,600 occasions. That's not the record of the Health Services Union, even though they have their own problems at the moment. That's not the record of the AWU. That's not the record of other unions across the country who may from time to time inadvertently or otherwise breach the law. This is an organisation that's been described by judges in the Federal Court as having no regard for the rule of law.

Yet somehow the Labor Party does nothing about it. It's not just because they influence preselections and debates; it's because they donate tens of millions of dollars to this Prime Minister's party. That's what has happened here. So what justification, given that on 2,600 occasions the officials have been before the courts and been involved in about 213 proceedings and been penalised with over $24 million in penalties by the courts? How could you be blind to that? How could you pretend that that is not a reality? Well, it's because they donate money.

That is why the Greens are silent too, I might say. The Greens political party is a very significant beneficiary of the largesse dished out by John Setka and his friends. I don't know whether any of the teals have received any money from the CFMEU. It'd be interesting to get a full understanding given how interested they are in disclosure and transparency. But ultimately whether they could talk on those issues is a decision not of theirs but of Simon Holmes a Court, but that would be interesting to understand.

Look at what happens in Victoria, for example—

See this speech in context