Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Seselja. I do make the point that Senator Dastyari, who has been pursuing this FoFA disallowance motion for such a long time, was a very solid supporter of the former member Craig Thomson and it is reasonable for us to call into question the judgement exhibited both by the support of Craig Thomson, the former member who I understand has been convicted of a number of offences that he denied ever committing, and the judgement attached to this sort of hijacked stealth manoeuvre. This is not just some union cabal where you can turn up with your thugs and smash people's legs and things like that to get your way. That is not how it works here—it works on the courtesies; it works on the ethic of reciprocity; it works on convention. They are all the things that conservatives like myself value.

I know it is not just about politics. Courtesy, reciprocity and convention were the very things that saw Senator Claire Moore last week come out in support of someone who is perhaps her political opposite when she saw an injustice being done. That is what distinguishes a truly solid senator from the others. It says to me that Senator Moore is perhaps the person with the greatest character on the other side. I know Senator Moore is probably blushing now; I only wish the people of Australia could see how she is forced to stand there and listen to nice words being said about her. It is not the Labor way to say nice things about your colleagues, but Senator Moore has broken with that. She said, if not nice things, honest things and she put to bed and dispelled some falsehoods and some myths that were being peddled by some of her colleagues—who I did not even know were colleagues, such has been their impact on this place. I am talking about Tim Watts MP.