Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, thank you for your ruling. So this is what the ALP protects. Senator Abetz made it very clear that there is a process to follow here; if someone has done the wrong thing, there will be a process. If there is police action with any of these individuals, they will be pursued to the full force of the law—because it is without fear or favour. But what I will highlight is the fact that the ALP sees things somewhat differently. When it is one of their own—as long as they have not 'ratted them out'—they will defend the most outrageous behaviour. We have seen it with the royal commission. They defend the CFMEU because the CFMEU pays their bills.

And if we get the Greens to stand up, they can tell us why they continue to defend the CFMEU. It is interesting in terms of the Greens. When they receive money from the CFMEU, the Greens said its okay because they received the money not from the forestry part but from the construction part. That was the Greens line! They said they didn't receive it from the people representing those 'evil forest workers', they received it from the good part of the CFMEU, the construction part. That is the corrupt part that we have seen on show.

Senator Whish-Wilson interjecting—

That is where you get your money from, Senator Whish-Wilson. That is where the Greens have been getting their money. So when the Greens get up and speak about this issue they can say why they believe that the construction part of the CFMEU is the decent part of the CFMEU. They get those large cheques—and who knows where that money comes from. We have seen the stuff about extortion on business sites right here in the ACT and right around the country. Decent, hardworking small business owners have had their money extorted. In some cases that money goes into CFMEU coffers and then they split it up among their supporters in the parliament—between the Labor Party and the Greens.

In conclusion, the Labor Party are into protection rackets but what they are not into is in anyway having a fair and balanced approach. They will defend their own to the death regardless of how outrageous they are. (Time expired)