Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the second day of questioning of the new government on this particular issue and it really is starting to stink. It is a scandal that is engulfing the new government and the Transport Workers Union in allegations of extortion, of misappropriation, of avoidance to declare, and secret commissions and secret donations to ALP members’ campaign funds. That is the extent of the allegations, and the other side just bat it off—for good reasons, as previous speakers have said—because they owe so much to the union.

This gets more suspicious as each day goes on and demands an inquiry, particularly with the revelations in today’s paper that there are in fact more Labor members of parliament who were beneficiaries of the TWU’s secret donations than first suspected. It raises a whole lot of questions. If that is the case, if there are in fact more members that have received these secret, undeclared donations than first suspected by the Sunday show, by the media, it raises a whole lot of questions. First of all, how long has this been going on for? For how many elections can this be backdated? How many declarations have they missed? How many more have not been declared? How can we trust them that 15 is indeed the definitive number? It raises a whole lot of questions that ought to be looked at by a proper judicial inquiry.

We cannot trust Mr Sheldon; he has form, as my colleague Senator Abetz said. He has form from Queensland, brought down to practise his art in New South Wales. His glib remark was that the Sunday show was simply carrying old electoral news. The fact is he rushed the declarations on the Friday to meet the accusations of the Sunday show. That is not old electoral news; that it is a desperate rush for damage control before it all became public. There is no doubt that the new government received phone calls yesterday. They have got their riding instructions today. We have seen the new set of speakers stand up and repeat exactly what was said yesterday, to defend the union and the union officials at any cost at all. As Senator Conroy succinctly put it yesterday, ‘We won’t rat on our mates.’ That basically sums it up.

There is no doubt an inquiry is required. This is a very serious matter. Last month the auditing firm Deloitte’s found serious irregularities in the union’s training funds—misappropriation is basically the bottom line allegation—and claims of extortion against their business associates; that is, extorting money, which, of course, all went to ALP campaign funds. I think some of the union members would be happy for a proper audit of this union. Of course there is the cover-up in relation to declarations. As I said before, Mr Sheldon rushed the declarations in on the Friday before they were all revealed on the Sunday program. We cannot even trust the declarations that have been put in.

And what of the New South Wales ALP officers? You cannot tell me—and I will not accept—that they did not know that at least 15 of their members of parliament were receiving donations for campaign funds. You cannot tell me that a head office is unaware of that. Of course it is not! It does not work that way. They were fully aware of it. And what of their declarations and their obligations? That ought to be looked at too. There is a link between the TWU and the New South Wales head office in relation to these secret campaign funds. Fifteen members have received them and they have only just been declared. What is the responsibility of the ALP officers who were once down there in Macquarie Street? I do not know if they still reside in Macquarie Street, but you cannot tell me that they are not a part of this cover-up. Of course they are. As Senator Ronaldson said, this goes to the heart of the integrity of the new government, which trumpeted their accountability and transparency. Of course it goes to the heart of the integrity of their relationship and the debt they owe the unions. It seems to me they are going to pay that debt back to the tune of $50 million. They are intertwined with the union. We have TWU union members across there, we have TWU members on the administrative committee—(Time expired)

Question agreed to.