Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Mr Deputy President. It has direct relevance because what we were seeking is an assurance that the foreign minister was complying with the principles of the convention in how he applied that on the basis of his approach domestically, here in Australia, to the international convention and international transactions. Here is yet another example of where that compliance has been neither sought nor assured. So we have a situation where we have a senator on the other side of the chamber, Gavin Marshall, who was a trustee of the ETU trust fund that channelled money away from insurance premiums that were increased by 30 per cent into a separate trust fund that Mike Symon, the then candidate for Deakin, was the bag collector for. He was the bag collector, and that is what the Labor government have supported. These people are promoted and preselected, and they sit on the opposite side of the chamber.

The Cole royal commission looked into this. They do not want to deal with this, but the Cole royal commission looked into this, and I quote from it. It said, 'Unknown to the employers who contributed to the premiums in this trust fund, a private arrangement was made whereby large sums were paid by a company to the ETU as commission.' A trustee of that was one Senator Gavin Marshall, and the debt collector there was one Mike Symon. (Time expired)