Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, staff of Labor senators. You are quite right. I know that Senator Conroy comes from a real job: he used to be a truck driver or used to work for the truckies’ union. Perhaps there is a bit of a difference in that. Back in the Keating years, the Labor Party used to give the unions big licks of money to set up a library or something like that. Of course, the union would then shuffle the money through and donate it back to the Labor Party for campaign funds. That is why the unions and the Labor Party do so well when there are Labor governments.

When you have wall-to-wall Labor governments—every state government, every territory government and should the federal government become a Labor government—can you just imagine? The unions will run riot. In this chamber they are all representatives of the union. Right around the states, you see the unions having such a strong influence on what state Labor governments do. Senator Bernardi, did you want to speak?