Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I will following on from Senator Ronaldson's comments. Since August last year, since I have had responsibility for Dobell as patron senator, I have placed on the record in a series of 12 speeches the sordid history that has become the saga of Mr Thomson and not just his dealings with the HSU but a whole range of other activities—his associations with Mr Williamson and the various connections between Mr Thomson, Mr Williamson and former Senator Arbib and other members in this place.

Senator Ronaldson made mention of the payment of legal fees. I put this on the record five times last year when I asserted that Senator Mark Arbib had brokered the payment of a quarter of a million dollars for Mr Thomson's legal fees. Not once did Minister Arbib come into this place and refute the assertion that I had made. The reason he did not is—certainly this has become very common knowledge in New South Wales circles—that that is precisely what the Labor Party did. There were payments that were made before and there are payments which have subsequently been made to cover Mr Thomson's legal expenses to prevent him from going bankrupt and therefore having to leave this place. So it is not surprising at all that Senator Abetz's motion today was not supported either by those opposite or by their Greens alliance partners.

This evening I would like to make some comments in relation to the bill before us. The revelations surrounding the HSU demonstrate that there is an absolute need to ensure accountability for the hard earned union fees paid by members. Just before, I spoke of workers in the aged-care sector. What is now emerging as another grubby little deal that has been done is in relation to the workforce compact in aged care. Let us see who is going to be the beneficiary of that workforce compact, because you can bet your bottom dollar that is going to help one of the three health unions, the HSU, back into business.

We know that some organisations have used money for inappropriate purposes and breached existing rules. This is why the law desperately needs to be changed. We know that the investigation into the HSU took three years. We have seen the failure to cooperate with the police and Fair Work Australia claiming that they could not prepare a brief of evidence to the DPP. This bill does not go far enough and it fails to deal with the real issues that were brought up over the course of this investigation.

What are the issues with this bill? Well, Fair Work Australia is still in control. This bill will continue to allow Fair Work Australia to be responsible for registered organisations. Given the concerns that have been expressed in relation to Fair Work Australia's ability to do its job, that is a real issue. In this bill we are seeing Bill Shorten's plan, a former union boss who is going to regulate for unions—