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

Here we go. Senator O'Sullivan says that it is criminal activity. Senator O'Sullivan, the Australian trade union movement have been the bulwark for workers' living standards in this country. The National Party should actually be thanking the trade union movement in this country for getting decent wages and decent conditions for rural and regional workers all over Australia. Without the trade union movement there would not be penalty rates in rural and regional Australia. Without the trade union movement and the Labor Party there would not be annual leave loading and there would not be superannuation for workers—and the Liberals have opposed every move to try to give workers a decent retirement. There would not be small businesses that could survive in rural and regional Australia if penalty rates disappear. We know the arguments the Liberal Party put up on penalty rates. We know that they are out there saying that there should be more flexibility and that penalty rates should go. You can interject all you like, but I challenge the Liberal-National Party to go into rural and regional Australia and tell them the truth of your position—that you want to get rid of penalty rates, that you want workers' living standards to decline and that you want more profits for the people who are putting their hands in their pocket and donating to the Liberal Party and the National Party.

That reminds me that Senator O'Sullivan was a trustee or a director of a company called Altum Pty Ltd. It received massive donations from other nominee companies. There is money getting fed in all over the place. This is a property trust linked to the Liberal and National parties that received $430,000 in rent from Walton Construction when that company went bust, leaving small businesses all over Queensland with no money. It left small companies bankrupt everywhere. In 2009-10 the rent for this company was $105,994 from Walton. In 2010-11 it jumped to $353,000. In 2011-12 it went to $516,966. In 2012-13, when this company was starting to go broke, they still got $431,000. This is the sort of nonsense that is going on with the National Party.

You hear Senator O'Sullivan on his feet railing against the union movement and railing against union donations to the Labor Party, but he has got a lot to answer in relation to Altum Pty Ltd, a Liberal Party front that was taking money off a company that was going bust, a company that was not paying its creditors, a company that was not paying its workers and a company that left millions of dollars of devastation around this country. Senator O'Sullivan was then with Altum Pty Ltd. Transparency is needed. The National Party and the Liberal Party need to be transparent about where their money is because Labor are.