Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak of hope. Earlier today, a journalist asked the Prime Minister a question. The question was: 'Prime Minister, on ensuring integrity, do you share the view of your colleagues that Senator Hanson has somehow been cowed by the unions, especially in the shadow of the state election in Queensland next year?' The Prime Minister's response included the following in relation to the ensuring integrity bill: 'It will come back into the House of Representatives this week after it goes back through the party room this week and we will take it forward. We will take it forward, because we believe in it. We believe that union thugs should not go onto building sites and threaten people, or in any area of the workplace and be able to do that, on and on and on and on, and not face any expulsion from the industry for doing that. We believe in that. They should be held to account. I put laws in place to do that to bankers. It should be in place to do that to union thugs too.'

I believe in that too. So there is hope. This government is not just going to lie down and roll over, following the disappointment of last week—