Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I rise to speak today on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014. There are two words that sum up the need for this legislation. Over 10 years in this place, I have pursued a number of matters. One of these was that the sordid saga that became the Craig Thomson affair. Those are the two words why this legislation needs to be passed. Craig Thomson, the disgraced former Labor member for Dobell and one-time secretary of the Health Services Union in his maiden speech, which I have quoted in the past, stated:

The support I received from the entire union movement and of course my own union, the Health Services Union, was phenomenal.

Little did we know the extent of that support that the HSU gave. How ironic that Mr Thomson's comments, with the wisdom of hindsight, were made exactly seven years ago in the other place.

When people think of the Health Services Union, they might imagine a cohort of doctors and highly-paid medical professionals who are financially stable and extensively educated in their chosen field. In reality, the union fund that Craig Thomson stole from was financed largely by people of considerably less wealth. Indeed, most of them were aged care workers who penny pinched on a minimum wage to have their hard earned salary funnelled into feeding Craig Thomson's habits.

Senator Abetz in a media release on 17 December after Craig Thomson was sentenced was absolutely correct when he referred to the moral decay that was and is the long and shameful saga of the Craig Thomson affair, which showed the reason why we need a registered organisations commission.

What did that sad and sorry saga cost the taxpayers of Australia? It cost $4 million through the Fair Work Commission inquiry alone. So as we call on those opposite to support the coalition's registered organisation bill, I ask those opposite: how do you know that there are not more Craig Thomsons and Michael Williamses out there? I believe that there are and that the HSU was only the tip of the iceberg.

So what did the Labor Party do? What did the Labor Party do?

Senator Cameron interjecting—

You defended him to the hilt, Senator—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President. You defended him to the hilt. And I see Senator Dastyari sitting next to Senator Cameron. You defended this guy to the hilt. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame on you, and shame on the former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, when repeatedly she was asked—