Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I do not think so and, as Senator Patterson said, nor will the Australian public.

The other issue I want to address—and I know that some of my colleagues will probably talk about it as well—is the extortion and bullying of companies that took place to fund the slush fund. If the Prime Minister is prepared to sit back and accept that it is appropriate for funds to be taken from companies via threats, then put into a slush fund and then paid to his candidates and state Labor candidates in New South Wales, he will be judged accordingly. I would like to go through some of the companies that have been in this position: Dairy Farmers, Linfox, Toll, Qantas, Australia Post, Action James, Allied Express, Star Track Express and Manpower. Dairy Farmers, I understand, were required to put—(Time expired)