Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President—you are quite right. I take the members of the Palmer United Party and Senator Muir as honourable people. I do not agree with them on some things but I think they are honourable people. I am appealing to them to stick by the deal. It will come back to bite them if they get a reputation for not being able to be trusted.

I want to raise again the matter that Senator Back so forcefully and eloquently raised today, and I think it was also touched on by Senator Cormann and Senator Canavan. Why are the industry super funds being excluded from this? If what is being proposed by Labor and the Greens is good for part of the industry, why is this other part of the industry not being included? Can anyone tell me? Could it possibly be that those industry super funds are creations of the union movement? Could it be that they are closely associated with the union movement? Could it be that Senator Cameron, when he was a union heavy, when he was a union boss, was on the board of one of those industry super funds? He has never told me what he got as a salary as a director of those funds—I guess one day he will tell us about that.