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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Ronaldson today relating to the Transport Workers Union.

We saw again today the refusal of Senator Evans, the Minister representing the Prime Minister, to acknowledge that the wrongdoings of the TWU and the ALP in New South Wales are worthy of comment by him. This goes to the heart of the now tarnished claims of openness and transparency by the Rudd Labor government.

We have a failed amended return by the TWU late on Friday afternoon and then, on Sunday night, Mr Tony Sheldon, the man responsible for this, still had his name in a cabinet submission to go onto the National Transport Commission. The Australian Labor Party and the Rudd government must have known full well on Friday night of this amended form. This was the same set of circumstances that was denied by Mr Sheldon last year and denied again by him on the Sunday program. Why wasn’t he prepared to tell the Sunday program that this amended return had been filed?

Tony Sheldon, the man who on Sunday night was going to be the representative on the National Transport Commission, was the same man who authorised one of his lackeys on Friday to file this amended return. This amended return took the number of ALP state members who had been supported by the TWU from seven to 15. And Senator Evans tells us today that this is not a matter of concern at all to the Rudd Labor government—so much for openness and transparency.

Why would the Rudd Labor government, which is still going through ‘Wollongong-gate’, as it has been called, not acknowledge that it has problems with its union donations? Why do you continue to oppose the motion supported by the coalition, the Greens, Family First and the Democrats in relation to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which would put all these issues on the table—not just union donations but donations from the corporate sector? What are you afraid of? Why are you not prepared to accept this full inquiry? Why do you continue to deny the illegal activities of the TWU, which is supporting your very own? Is that why you will not do it? Or is it the $30 million that the unions gave to you before the last election? Thirty million favours in return for the shackles. That is why on Sunday night Tony Sheldon was still in that cabinet submission. That is why the bottle of white-out came out only on Monday morning to take his name off. Yet you knew on Friday night of this amended return, which had taken it from seven ALP members to 15. That is a disgrace. It is almost as disgraceful as the amount of money that has been given to them.

Why would you not support an independent judicial inquiry into this matter? We know why not. Because you are not going to do anything to the TWU, the ACTU or any of the other union affiliates which have funded your election campaign. They are owed by you and that is why the likes of Tony Sheldon can get away with what he did.

There was an article by Mark Aarons, a former senior adviser to NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, in the Australian this morning. I know that one of my colleagues will refer to the article and I will do so briefly too. He talks about the influence that ordinary union members have and what they cannot do. He said:

Such matters are simply the playthings of union secretaries. This system is wrong in principle, giving immense power to a small group of unrepresentative ALP members. This can prevent even the best governments from taking the wisest decisions for the widest good.

Absolutely! By refusing to acknowledge these TWU illegal donations, what you have done— (Time expired)