Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think that goes to the same position that Senator Brandis takes with his legal arguments—you know, misuse the processes of the Senate. It just shows again why Senator Brandis should actually go back and read what Lionel Murphy said in this place back in 1972.

I will leave that just for a minute, because I am not a lawyer. But it is actually nice being able to draw to the attention of the would-be Attorney-General of this country some of the basic principles of the law—some of the basic principles that are being trashed here. We have been through this time and again, and I would have thought someone who was standing up and foreshadowing that they wanted to be the Attorney-General of this country would have some basic understanding of the law and the principles that underpin the law.

I want to come to the proposition we have before us. It is about special relationships. No-one denies that there is a special relationship between the trade union movement and the Australian Labor Party. Why? Because the Australian Labor Party is a labour party—a party representing workers and labour in this country. It is the party that actually stood up for workers when Work Choices was foisted upon the community during the Howard government. We are a labour party. There is a special relationship. The relationship between the trade union movement and the Labor Party is a root-and-branch relationship. If we stood here every time one of the big business mates of the coalition ended up in court on an embezzlement charge, we would spend a lot of time of the Senate talking about special relationships between corrupt businessmen and the coalition. We would be doing a lot of that.

You talk about special relationships. Let's look at special relationships in the coalition. Look at the special relationships of the lobbyists, who are now becoming a huge force, working away under the surface of the Liberal Party—the lobbyists who have both offices within the Liberal Party and operate as lobbyists. Senator Brandis should know this well, because it has been a huge controversy in Queensland, where Campbell Newman has had to face accusations that lobbyists are getting special privileges in Queensland.

Just look at some of these lobbyists. If you want to talk about the Australian Financial Review and how good the Financial Review is, I would draw your attention, Senator Brandis, to Pamela Williams's two articles back on Friday, 2 November and Saturday, 3 November. She talks about a growing number of top business executives getting phone calls from Santo Santoro—