Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Ronaldson today relating to the Transport Workers Union.

We saw again today the refusal of Senator Evans, the Minister representing the Prime Minister, to acknowledge that the wrongdoings of the TWU and the ALP in New South Wales are worthy of comment by him. This goes to the heart of the now tarnished claims of openness and transparency by the Rudd Labor government.

We have a failed amended return by the TWU late on Friday afternoon and then, on Sunday night, Mr Tony Sheldon, the man responsible for this, still had his name in a cabinet submission to go onto the National Transport Commission. The Australian Labor Party and the Rudd government must have known full well on Friday night of this amended form. This was the same set of circumstances that was denied by Mr Sheldon last year and denied again by him on the Sunday program. Why wasn’t he prepared to tell the Sunday program that this amended return had been filed?

Tony Sheldon, the man who on Sunday night was going to be the representative on the National Transport Commission, was the same man who authorised one of his lackeys on Friday to file this amended return. This amended return took the number of ALP state members who had been supported by the TWU from seven to 15. And Senator Evans tells us today that this is not a matter of concern at all to the Rudd Labor government—so much for openness and transparency.

Why would the Rudd Labor government, which is still going through ‘Wollongong-gate’, as it has been called, not acknowledge that it has problems with its union donations? Why do you continue to oppose the motion supported by the coalition, the Greens, Family First and the Democrats in relation to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which would put all these issues on the table—not just union donations but donations from the corporate sector? What are you afraid of? Why are you not prepared to accept this full inquiry? Why do you continue to deny the illegal activities of the TWU, which is supporting your very own? Is that why you will not do it? Or is it the $30 million that the unions gave to you before the last election? Thirty million favours in return for the shackles. That is why on Sunday night Tony Sheldon was still in that cabinet submission. That is why the bottle of white-out came out only on Monday morning to take his name off. Yet you knew on Friday night of this amended return, which had taken it from seven ALP members to 15. That is a disgrace. It is almost as disgraceful as the amount of money that has been given to them.

Why would you not support an independent judicial inquiry into this matter? We know why not. Because you are not going to do anything to the TWU, the ACTU or any of the other union affiliates which have funded your election campaign. They are owed by you and that is why the likes of Tony Sheldon can get away with what he did.

There was an article by Mark Aarons, a former senior adviser to NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, in the Australian this morning. I know that one of my colleagues will refer to the article and I will do so briefly too. He talks about the influence that ordinary union members have and what they cannot do. He said:

Such matters are simply the playthings of union secretaries. This system is wrong in principle, giving immense power to a small group of unrepresentative ALP members. This can prevent even the best governments from taking the wisest decisions for the widest good.

Absolutely! By refusing to acknowledge these TWU illegal donations, what you have done— (Time expired)

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another fine performance by Senator Ronaldson. He gets on his feet, yells and screams for five minutes and does not make one point of relevance in the debate. He asked the question of Senator Evans and he got a reasoned, considered response.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He did not.

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He did not get an answer that you wanted, but he got a reasoned, considered response, Senator Parry. The answer was that the matter is currently before the Australian Electoral Commission. The very fact that the TWU has put in an amended return means that the matter is currently before the commission. Senator Ronaldson is screaming for a judicial inquiry into a matter in which there has been no finding of anything illegal. No-one has yet found that the TWU has done anything that contravenes the Electoral Act. There is an allegation, but there is certainly no finding.

But did we hear Senator Ronaldson get on his feet, screaming for a judicial inquiry when Greenfields was operating in the Liberal Party—when the Liberal Party got $4.6 million out of Greenfields, which was contrary to the spirit of the Electoral Act? Of course not; nor did anybody else on the other side get up and scream about a judicial inquiry into Greenfields. That was a rort set up specifically to disguise where electoral funding to the Liberal Party was coming from. Of course they would not get on their feet and scream for a judicial inquiry into those circumstances.

As I understand it, some advice we have is that in fact the former Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations announced that the former government would refer these so-called allegations about the TWU to a range of specialist bodies for investigation. As I understand it, the matters were referred to the Australian Electoral Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the New South Wales government. I also understand that the Workplace Authority, an Australian industrial registry, also undertook inquiries into these matters. Referring matters to specialised areas of government at both a state and federal level ensures the body with the appropriate legislative responsibilities and investigative powers can undertake a thorough examination of the issues. Obviously what Senator Evans was saying is that the appropriate course to follow here is to allow those investigations, if they are on foot, or any further investigations that come out of the amended return that has been put in, to take place and to proceed with those appropriate bodies.

But that is not what those on the other side want. They do not want a proper investigation of these matters. They do not want to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the Electoral Act. They want a political point that they can get up and pointscore off. They think they have something that will generate some sympathy out there in the community. That is why we have seen again today the spectacle of Senator Ronaldson on his feet, screaming and yelling for another five minutes and making no relevant point of substance in the debate—that is because he does not have one. He has what he thinks is a political hot potato and, as my colleague Senator Hutchins said, he got all hot and bothered. Maybe the potato was burning his fingers; I do not know.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz interjecting—

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But certainly it is no substitute getting up here and screaming for five minutes, Senator Abetz—(Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The simple fact is that these latest allegations highlight a very deep culture of corruption within the broad Labor movement. Mr Sheldon, the architect of this dishonest scam that Senator Ronaldson so eloquently highlighted and brought to the attention of this chamber, is the one and the same Mr Sheldon who I understand was caught and convicted of ballot rigging in the Liquor Trade Union in Queensland about a decade earlier. What does the Labor movement do with these people who get caught ballot rigging? They warehouse them for a while, slip them across a border somewhere and then put them back in a place somewhere. Having done their apprenticeship in ballot rigging, they then get promoted where they can scam literally millions of dollars from employers and channel it into the Labor Party coffers.

This seems to be a rite of passage within the Australian Labor movement. Indeed, Mr Sheldon’s case shows how all this is done. But do you remember what Mr Rudd, a Queenslander who undoubtedly would have known Mr Sheldon’s background in the Queensland Liquor Trade Union, said before the election? He said, in relation to the trade union rorts, that they would take ‘an absolutely hard line on this stuff’. Yes, that was before the election. Straight after the election it was, ‘Oh, I know nothing about this; we as a Labor Party don’t need to know about this; sure, my party has benefited to the tune of a couple of million dollars or more and over 15 candidates have benefited,’ and, ‘Yes, it wasn’t a proper scheme,’ and, ‘Yes, he was convicted of ballot rigging a decade earlier, but so what?’

Does all this sound familiar, especially to you, Mr Deputy President, as a Queenslander? Remember Mr Mike Kaiser MP who was caught electoral roll rigging. The then Premier Peter Beattie said, ‘We will drum this man out of the state and out of the party.’ Yes, they drummed him straight out of Queensland and into the position of chief of staff to the Labor Premier of New South Wales. This is the way the Labor Party rewards these people. They do an apprenticeship, be it on ballot rigging in Mr Sheldon’s case, be it in electoral roll rigging in Mr Kaiser’s case, and then they get the big promotion for the Labor cause. There is this culture within the Australian Labor Party and, what is more, it exists within the Prime Minister’s office itself. I recall when we were in opposition and Labor were in government pursuing somebody who rejoiced in the name of Mr David Epstein, a person who was brought before the Senate estimates committee deliberately because of misleading information that he provided in relation to the National Media Liaison Service—so-called aNiMaLS, for short. The media knew what sort of a dirt unit it was. It was written up accordingly and Mr Epstein left this place with his tail between his legs. But of course now he is rewarded as chief of staff to Mr Rudd. What we have here are three classic examples of how the Australian Labor Party rewards those people who misbehave. That is unfortunately part of the culture. I have no doubt that one of the former Transport Workers Union officials will get up and try to defend the indefensible in relation to Mr Sheldon.

Senator Hutchins shakes his head and says he will not. Every now and then I think there is a glimmer of hope for Senator Hutchins. Every now and then decency does cut through with him. On this occasion it has cut through again, and I welcome that. But the simple fact is this. The Australian Labor Party has embedded within it this culture: you do a bit of ballot rigging in Queensland and then you get promoted to a much bigger, more powerful union in New South Wales. In Mike Kaiser’s case, you do a bit of electoral roll rigging in Queensland and you then get promoted to be chief of staff to the Labor Premier of New South Wales. In Mr Epstein’s case, you undertake activities with a dirt unit known as aNiMaLs, and then, sure you get sprung, but you just have to leave for a little while and then you will be reincarnated as the chief of staff to the Labor Prime Minister.

What this shows all Australians is: do not listen to what Labor says; look at what it actually does. The fact is that they are willing to have these powerbrokers, like Mr Sheldon, not content with ballot rigging, then rigging millions of dollars, being a powerbroker within the Australian Labor Party and determining who comes into this place representing the Labor Party. He is still in place there, he is still pulling the strings, and Mr Rudd sees no problem with him there; it is not a problem for him. It is a problem for him—(Time expired)

Linda Kirk (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion to take note of answers moved by Senator Ronaldson in response to answers given today in the Senate by Senator Evans. This is a matter that was raised yesterday, and here we have it again, raised by Senator Ronaldson. His concern seems to be that there ought to be some form of judicial inquiry set up in order to investigate certain allegations that the TWU bullied transport companies into paying money into a union training fund and donated funds going this way to the members of the ALP in New South Wales. This is the allegation that has been raised. In fact, these allegations go back some time. This is not a new issue. However, we still see Senator Ronaldson going on and on about it.

As I mentioned, this matter was actually raised in September of last year, when the Howard government was still in office. At the time, the former minister for employment and workplace relations, Mr Hockey, announced that the government would refer the allegations that had been made to a range of specialist bodies for them to investigate. In fact, at the time, there were some eight inquiries established into these allegations. Inquiries were set up by the Taxation Office, through the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and through the New South Wales Police. All of these were established in order to see whether or not there had been any breaches of Australian law. A whole gamut of authorities were established to have a look at this matter. The Workplace Authority and the Australian Industrial Registry also undertook inquiries. Today, of course, we hear concerns raised by Senator Ronaldson in relation to additional information that has been provided now by the TWU to the Australian Electoral Commission.

As I said, there have been numerous inquiries that have been established to look at these allegations and so far, to date, there have not been any conclusions drawn by these authorities. None of these inquiries to date have found anything at all that would warrant prosecution. There have been no findings whatsoever of illegal conduct. Most importantly, these inquiries are ongoing; they are not yet exhausted. Surely it is the case that, when you refer a matter such as this to specialised areas of government, both at a state and a federal level, the body with the appropriate legislative responsibility and the investigative powers, ought to be able to conduct a thorough examination of the issues, and they should be able to complete their inquiries—take them right through to the end—before any other sort of judicial inquiry, such as Senator Ronaldson has suggested, is established. The appropriate course of action, clearly, in this instance, is to allow these investigations, which are on foot, particularly that of the Australian Electoral Commission, to proceed.

As Senator Evans said in response to the questions asked by Senator Ronaldson, if Senator Ronaldson or any other senator—or any other person, for that matter—has any information on these matters that they think is relevant then they ought to provide it to these authorities. If they have any information that they believe relates to criminal activity on the part of any person then they ought to refer that information to either the state police, if necessary, or to the Australian Federal Police, whichever body happens to have the jurisdiction over the matter.

So, really, this is a pretty clear-cut case. The AEC has an ongoing investigation, as do a number of other bodies, and we should allow these processes to be completed. They should be able to go right through to the very end and draw the kinds of conclusions that they find, on the basis of evidence. Why would we spend taxpayers money establishing a judicial inquiry at this point in time? Why would we not wait until the authorities who do have the jurisdiction to look at these matters have completed their inquiries? Here we have Senator Ronaldson making allegations, suggesting that people are guilty and finding people guilty when there has not been a proper process in place. There has been no procedural fairness or natural justice provided to these people. As I said, if there are allegations that Senator Ronaldson has to make or if there is any information that he or any other person has then he ought to refer this information to the relevant authorities, whether it be the AEC, the state police or the Australian Federal Police. That is the proper process to follow, and I encourage Senator Ronaldson to be patient and wait for the outcome. (Time expired)

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the second day of questioning of the new government on this particular issue and it really is starting to stink. It is a scandal that is engulfing the new government and the Transport Workers Union in allegations of extortion, of misappropriation, of avoidance to declare, and secret commissions and secret donations to ALP members’ campaign funds. That is the extent of the allegations, and the other side just bat it off—for good reasons, as previous speakers have said—because they owe so much to the union.

This gets more suspicious as each day goes on and demands an inquiry, particularly with the revelations in today’s paper that there are in fact more Labor members of parliament who were beneficiaries of the TWU’s secret donations than first suspected. It raises a whole lot of questions. If that is the case, if there are in fact more members that have received these secret, undeclared donations than first suspected by the Sunday show, by the media, it raises a whole lot of questions. First of all, how long has this been going on for? For how many elections can this be backdated? How many declarations have they missed? How many more have not been declared? How can we trust them that 15 is indeed the definitive number? It raises a whole lot of questions that ought to be looked at by a proper judicial inquiry.

We cannot trust Mr Sheldon; he has form, as my colleague Senator Abetz said. He has form from Queensland, brought down to practise his art in New South Wales. His glib remark was that the Sunday show was simply carrying old electoral news. The fact is he rushed the declarations on the Friday to meet the accusations of the Sunday show. That is not old electoral news; that it is a desperate rush for damage control before it all became public. There is no doubt that the new government received phone calls yesterday. They have got their riding instructions today. We have seen the new set of speakers stand up and repeat exactly what was said yesterday, to defend the union and the union officials at any cost at all. As Senator Conroy succinctly put it yesterday, ‘We won’t rat on our mates.’ That basically sums it up.

There is no doubt an inquiry is required. This is a very serious matter. Last month the auditing firm Deloitte’s found serious irregularities in the union’s training funds—misappropriation is basically the bottom line allegation—and claims of extortion against their business associates; that is, extorting money, which, of course, all went to ALP campaign funds. I think some of the union members would be happy for a proper audit of this union. Of course there is the cover-up in relation to declarations. As I said before, Mr Sheldon rushed the declarations in on the Friday before they were all revealed on the Sunday program. We cannot even trust the declarations that have been put in.

And what of the New South Wales ALP officers? You cannot tell me—and I will not accept—that they did not know that at least 15 of their members of parliament were receiving donations for campaign funds. You cannot tell me that a head office is unaware of that. Of course it is not! It does not work that way. They were fully aware of it. And what of their declarations and their obligations? That ought to be looked at too. There is a link between the TWU and the New South Wales head office in relation to these secret campaign funds. Fifteen members have received them and they have only just been declared. What is the responsibility of the ALP officers who were once down there in Macquarie Street? I do not know if they still reside in Macquarie Street, but you cannot tell me that they are not a part of this cover-up. Of course they are. As Senator Ronaldson said, this goes to the heart of the integrity of the new government, which trumpeted their accountability and transparency. Of course it goes to the heart of the integrity of their relationship and the debt they owe the unions. It seems to me they are going to pay that debt back to the tune of $50 million. They are intertwined with the union. We have TWU union members across there, we have TWU members on the administrative committee—(Time expired)

Question agreed to.