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

I always find it quite amusing when the coalition talk about workers and looking after workers and trade unionists. It always make me smile when I see these people, with a pedigree going back to Bjelke-Petersen in the National Party, spawned from the loins of the Bjelke-Petersen regime, stand up here and tell us they are going to look after working people and trade unionists in this country.

The reality is quite clear. The reality is that this royal commission is fundamentally flawed. It is fundamentally flawed because it was a political product of the coalition. It was a political product that was to be a clear attack on not only the trade union movement in this country but the Labor Party in this country. It is about attacking the opponents of the coalition. It is about using every aspect of the power of government against political opponents. That is what this government has done. Bjelke-Petersen did the same thing, but Bjelke-Petersen did it in a much more raw way. He did it in a much more blatant way. This coalition is trying to do it in a way that is a little bit more subtle.

So what do they do? They get Dyson Heydon, a former High Court judge who is one of the most conservative judges this country has ever seen, to head up a royal commission to attack the trade union movement and to attack the Labor Party. Dyson Heydon, only a few years back, was talking about it still being okay to rape your wife in marriage. That is the type of conservatism that this guy brought to the royal commission. He set about establishing procedures in the royal commission that looked after the biggest fraud and the biggest crook in the Australian trade union movement—Kathy Jackson. He looked after her, gave her special treatment and gave her inside running that was given to no other witness before this commission. Dyson Heydon is presiding over a crook royal commission. Dyson Heydon should go. The lawyers who are supporting Dyson Heydon should go. We should be establishing a proper inquiry. If there is evidence of any wrongdoing in the trade union movement, the people involved should be locked up and the key should be thrown away. That is what should be happening.

But it should not be done through a kangaroo court process which is a political attack by this government on the trade union movement and on the Labor Party. That is what this is all about. The bias is clearly there. Dyson Heydon—this guy who is supposedly a great legal mind—stood up and argued that a fundraiser for the Liberal Party was not a fundraiser. He sat in the royal commission and he protected the biggest crook ever in the trade union movement. He protected her, gave her cover and gave her the inside running. Dyson Heydon is an absolute disgrace and he should go. He should go, his team should go and this royal commission should go. It is a tool of the coalition government to attack its political opponents, and Dyson Heydon is allowing himself to be the main attack weapon set up by this government.

If you are Kathy Jackson, you get a fair go, you get the inside running and you get coached. If you are a former Labor Party Prime Minister, you get attacked and you get a biased commentary made against you. If you are the current leader of the Labor Party, you get attacked. After hundreds of questions that they could not damage the leader of the opposition with, what happened? Dyson Heydon moved in to give the press the grab for the day. This guy is biased. He should go. The royal commission is nothing more than a political tool to attack the trade union movement and the Labor Party. It is biased, it is unacceptable and Dyson Heydon should go. (Time expired)