John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Senator Fifield, I have also been referred to as 'John' at times. To think that people would face two years jail—the jails would be overflowing. We would be building new jails everywhere to put these workers in jail because they did not know the rules; they simply showed up to support us and, as a result, they got up to two years jail. Give us a break! To me, jails are for people who have committed serious crimes, like those pushing drugs. The drug ice is a scourge not only in the big cities and the big towns but in small country towns, small communities—even in the shearing shed. People who push ice threaten the lives of Australians. It must be a terribly addictive drug. It is a scourge on our society, and we need to get it under control. I would rather see those people in jail for what they are doing—not someone who came along to a National Party function not realising that they would be covered by this law because they worked at the club or the pub or at the local betting shop or for one of the big mining companies, or even the small mining companies.

We have the sapphire industry in Inverell. It is not as big an industry as it used to be. That is why the town is called the sapphire city. Someone who is making an honest living digging up sapphires alongside Frazer Creek and exporting them to Thailand is part of the mining industry. If they came along to a function I held at the local Royal Hotel, they would get two years jail? I cannot agree with that. That is simply wrong. That is not being a criminal. That is not tipping our nation upside down with crime, hurting others. They might have come along because I have known them for a long time. I might have helped them out with a problem they may have had with a landowner they may have had a disagreement with. I might have written them a letter of referral and praise and given them a reference for what they have done. To think that we would lock them up for two years—I simply cannot agree with that.

This is so out of balance. Where is the trade union movement? In the last 21 years, $100 million has flowed to the other side of the parliament, but not to this side. It is like a mob of sheep—cut the water off on this side and let them die of thirst while we feed all the water to the other side and they thrive. That is simply unfair.

Perhaps we need to look at New South Wales. I will be frank: there has been a big clean-up there, and certainly some have done the wrong thing. Perhaps we need to look at their system. But it is a burden on the taxpayer when more public funding is required for parties to run their organisations et cetera. Perhaps that is something we may need to look at in the New South Wales system, where you virtually cannot make a donation of more than $1,000 whether you are a company or whatever. It is something to keep in mind for the future.