Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, I hope you do better in your contribution than in your point of order. That being as it may, there is Dyson Heydon, with long links to the Liberal Party, being appointed on a multimillion-dollar retainer to actually preside over a witch-hunt against the trade union movement. That is all it is. There is no doubt that Dyson Heydon is not an appropriate officer to be presiding over this royal commission. He is quite clearly biased and he is quite clearly partisan. There is no argument about that.

The documentary trail clearly shows that, while he was the royal commissioner, he was prepared to address a Liberal Party fundraiser. He was prepared to abandon all evidence of any impartiality to go to a Liberal Party fundraiser and address his Liberal Party peers. There is no doubt about that. This is a man who has disqualified himself because of his actions. This is a man who has got no credibility to preside over any impartial judgement of any issues. And it makes it even worse that this is the Prime Minister's royal commission, set up to attack his political opponents, the trade union movement and promote the interests of the Liberal Party.