Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'How many empty seats?' I am asked by Senator Collins. By my rough calculations, about 24. I have got to tell you: they are this wide. So there you go. There's a $30,000 smack in the mouth to the taxpayer. This lot think it is great stuff, it is fantastic and it is intelligent.

What else can we do? We will go a little bit further, shall we? Let me talk about another thing which sort of fell under the radar but it now needs to be exposed. This goes back a number of years, to 2013, when Ms Gina Rinehart—I have no relationship with Ms Gina Rinehart. I have never met Ms Gina Rinehart. She has not picked up the phone and said, 'Glenn, do you want to catch up for a coffee?' I have not picked up the phone and said, 'Ms Rinehart, do you want to catch up for a shandy?' I have not done that. But she thought it was a great idea. She had to go to a wedding—it is written here in the paper that she was going to a wedding in India being attended by 10,000 people. She was ready to sign a billion-dollar contract with the bride's grandfather to supply iron ore. So what does she do? She writes to a few people and says, 'How would you like to come on my chartered jet to India and, while you are at it, come to this random wedding.'