George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Kroger for the question. I imagine that the honourable senator has in mind the very surprising remarks of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, on Sunday that there ought to be a police task force into trade union corruption but that there should not be a royal commission.

Those remarks were very surprising for a number of reasons—first of all, because, on the very day that the News Limited papers foreshadowed that an announcement might be made the following day, all of a sudden, for the first time, Mr Shorten discovered that there might be a problem with trade union corruption!