Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I do not want to take part too deeply in this part of the debate but simply to refer to the mover of the amendments lamenting how the Greens could not afford to run candidates because of the cost. I just want to alert senators to the fact that it is the Greens political party that has received the largest ever single political donation of any party in Australia's history: $1.6 million from an individual donor. Some of the arguments I do not debate, but I just want to say that I think Senator Rhiannon speaks a little tongue-in-cheek when she says the Greens cannot afford it, when they are the recipients of such significant donations from individual wealthy donors. Not only that; much to the chagrin of the Labor Party, the Greens have also received donations from some of the faceless people that run the country—that is, the union movement and the union bosses. The Greens picked up a nice little swag from a couple of 'recalcitrant'—as far as the Labor Party is concerned—unions, so for the Greens to be crying poor diminishes the debate before the chamber.