Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to give Senator Campbell a briefing on this bill after this, because he clearly knows nothing about it at all. I thought it was interesting that Senator Stephens was talking about cartel conduct. The Labor Party’s pious amendment said:

(4) condemns the Government for the failure to legislate for gaol terms for serious cartel conduct ...

Guess what Senator Stephens did in relation to the Dawson bill? The Australian Labor Party opposed it. What did the Dawson bill have in it which the Australian Labor Party opposed? It increased the penalties for cartel conduct. This brought increased penalties of ‘the greater of $10 million or three times the value of the benefit it and any related body corporate derived from the cartel or, where that value cannot be determined, 10 per cent of its annual turnover’. Senator Stephens stands up here and talks about cartel conduct, knowing full well that we are just about to address that. She comes in here having opposed a bill that would have strengthened this provision. What an extraordinary approach.