Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

I can invite Senator Marshall to guess who it might be. It is a senator who describes herself—so it is not Senator Marshall—as a director of Magenta Linus Superannuation, an entity very closely related to Magenta Linus. Yes, none other than Labor Senator Hurley. I am sure Mr Rudd will tell us that he also knew nothing of that connection with Senator Hurley, who is of course so intimately connected to this dirty tricks exercise. No-one should be fooled: the ALP and the ACTU are both up to their necks in this exercise. Personal information available to Magenta Linus only by virtue of being Labor’s database manager appears to have been illegally passed on to the big brothers in the union movement—and for only one reason: to manipulate the union membership’s vote for Mr Rudd’s and the unions’ benefit.

Today we saw Mr Lawrence, the new head of the ACTU, say that he wanted a closer relationship between Labor and the trade union movement. You’ve gotta be joking! The space between sardines in a tin would be very comfortable in comparison with the closeness between Mr Rudd and the union movement. Make no mistake, a vote for Kevin Rudd is a vote for the trade union movement to interfere in the daily—(Time expired)