Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have the greatest regard for his ability, his integrity and his grasp of the law. I cannot understand the Labor Party and the Greens. I think these things are brought by people perhaps who wanted to be lawyers, who could never make a go in private practice, who became ambulance chasers, who tried to get into state parliament, were there for a little time and were then thrown out by the electorate. Perhaps it is these sorts of people who want to make a mark in the law that they were never able to do in real life, out there. All of these inquiries have been as wasteful of Senate resources and of Senate time as this inquiry was.

Nobody—not the public, not even the media, who will at even the whiff of some real drama happening be there with a full page—is interested in this hearing. This is a hearing about Labor incorporated. Remember 20 years ago when Labor got together with big business and rorted the Western Australian public? Remember that? That is what this inquiry is about. Twenty years ago, the Labor Party and big business—

Senator Farrell interjecting—

I am sorry. I beg your pardon, Senator Farrell. I stand corrected. It was not 20—I will take your interjection—it was 30 years ago. That is how long ago this was. Can you believe it? Can you believe the Senate is spending any time on rehashing one of the darkest periods in Labor Party history, and there have been plenty of dark ones with the Labor Party, I tell you. The darkest period in Labor Party history in Western Australia and, by implication, federally was when the Labor Party got into bed with crooks who cheated Western Australians out of a lot of money. That is the genesis of this inquiry. I cannot believe that the Labor Party would want to rehash this, that it would want to remind the Australian public of the dishonesty, of the criminality, of the Labor Party in Western Australia 30 years ago. You might remember that—was it one or two?—Labor premiers went to jail over this incident.