Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

None. You were right the second time, Senator Fifield. Not one single word was said, or has been said, by the member for Corangamite or the member for Corio in relation to a dispute which has been found to be illegal. It is a dispute that will potentially put at risk $60 million of investment and 100 jobs but there was not a word. Why do you think that might be? I will tell you why it is. It is because of that unholy alliance. The alliance between the Australian Labor Party and the Greens is an unholy alliance but there is an unholy alliance between the Australian Labor Party and union members who have turned out, in Geelong, to be nothing but thugs. As we saw with the Grocon dispute, they are nothing but thugs.

Where were Darren Cheeseman and Richard Marles when this was going on? Where were they standing up for investment in their own region? They go and talk the talk but they never, ever walk the walk in relation to looking after and supporting the region of Geelong. They have not said a word. And they have not said a word because of the unholy alliance between them and the union movement. They have effectively been silenced by a union movement that is so powerful it can change a Prime Minister. These two political wimps did not have the intestinal fortitude to make a single comment about this dispute.

You have heard what the Geelong Chamber of Commerce said and what the editorial in the Geelong Advertiser said. This required these two men to stand up for their region and it required these two men to tell the unions to back off and let the investment take place. And they were completely missing in action. They are still missing in action, because their obligation is to the Australian union movement. Their obligation, clearly, is not to those who elected them or those who are part of their wider constituency. And that is what Senator Fifield's motion is about today. It is about the fact that we are seeing, again, further proof about who owes whom, and it is not about the people of Geelong. (Time expired)