Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

And let us have a video blog on that, Senator Abetz. Let us go out and do a video blog on that.

I remind the Senate that in the lead-up to the 2004 election it was Peter Harris from Family First who met with Prime Minister Howard and a deal was done that Family First would run an advertising campaign attacking the Greens and in exchange would get preferences from the Liberal Party. That was on the front page of the Australian. The amount of money that the advertising campaign constituted was not listed, but it was estimated to be a $1 million campaign. Certainly, there was television advertising throughout rural and regional Australia doing just that. That kind of deal has already gone down.

We also remember the family impact statement. Where is the family impact statement on small businesses as a result of these merger arrangements? It is not there. I totally support what the Labor Party is saying in relation to the collective bargaining issue here today.