Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 10 days, Victorians will face a choice. They can choose to re-elect a Napthine coalition government which will implement the biggest modernisation plan in Victoria's history or they can choose to elect an Andrews Labor government which will roll out the most militant pro-union agenda in our state's history.

The Hayden royal commission has recently outed Dan's 'Dirty Half Dozen'—six Victorian Labor candidates who are beneficiaries of dirty union slush funds. Labor's member for the Western Metropolitan Region, Cesar Melhem, was found to have set up a clandestine slush fund, Industry 2020, that ripped off honest AWU members and bankrolled his political advancement, the careers of his cronies and a lifestyle of luxury. According to The Age, Mr Melhem squandered $40,000 on 'swish international and local restaurants and hotels and on alcohol, electronics and cigars'. Honest Victorian AWU members could only dream of the luxuries enjoyed by Mr Melhem at their expense. On 14 May 2013, Industry 2020 made a $20,000 donation to an association operated by Marlene Kairouz, the Labor member for Kororoit, and Kirsten Psaila, a Labor candidate for the Western Metropolitan Region. On 16 December 2009, a $1,550 cash cheque was written out to a 'fundraising event' to Natalie Hutchins, an ALP candidate for Keilor. Ms Hutchins now sits on Daniel Andrews's front bench as, disturbingly, the shadow minister for industrial relations. And yet in the face of such damning evidence Mr Andrews continues to support Mr Melhem, who is demonstrably unfit to represent the interests of workers, let alone the Victorian people.

But Mr Melhem is not alone. It has been recently revealed that Labor's shadow Attorney-General, Martin Pakula, received at least $15,622 from a secret slush fund, IR 21, at a 'significant cost' to honest members of the NUW. In 2006, IR 21 paid Mr Pakula's campaign $10,762, and on 11 April 2013 it made a $1,500 donation to Mr Pakula's Lyndhurst SEC. When questioned about these shady transactions, Mr Pakula reached straight for the union playbook and claimed that 'any donations made to me by IR 21 or anyone else were properly disclosed.' The problem is that a $3,400 donation made to his campaign on 9 August 2006 was not in fact disclosed. Counsel Assisting notes that 'there is no explanation as to why this amount was not recorded in the donations part of the general ledger for 2007.' Contrary to his dishonest claims, Mr Pakula kept the 28,000 Victorian NUW members in the dark. To quote Counsel Assisting:

There does not appear to have been any disclosure, let alone adequate disclosure, to NUW members of the existence and function of IR 21.

So much for Mr Pakula's full disclosure. Why doesn't Mr Pakula ask the NUW members in his contested seat of Keysborough what they think about his secret slush fund? These workers are paid an hourly rate of just over $21, barely $3 above their minimum wage.

But it was not just Mr Pakula who profited at the expense of honest NUW members. In 2010, a $2,000 donation was made to the Labor member for Western Victoria, Jaala Pulford, for a luncheon that no-one actually attended, and in April 2010 Ms Kairouz was again the beneficiary of dirty slush fund money, with her own fund, AB Hinc, receiving $4,800 from IR 21. If Mr Pakula and Mr Melhem were willing to rip off their own union members, what will they be willing to do to the Victorian electorate? And a further four candidates have all benefited from these dirty slush funds. If Dan's 'Dirty Half Dozen' had any political integrity, they would return them to the sources from which they were first taken.

But how could we forget the favourite union of Mr Andrews and Labor's shadow planning minister, Brian Tee: the CFMEU? Counsel Assisting has found that the CFMEU engaged in secretly stealing private information of its members, boycotts, cartels, blackmail, extortion and even death threats. The CFMEU, he writes, displays a 'deliberate and disturbing disregard for the rule of law.' Throughout the royal commission, the CFMEU has waged a campaign of smearing whistleblowers who have exposed wrongdoing within the union. According to Counsel Assisting, there is a pervasive and unhealthy culture within the CFMEU under which those who speak out about union wrongdoing are vilified by the union and their reputations become the subject of baseless slurs.'

The CFMEU has such little regard for the law that it even impugned the professionalism and propriety of a senior police commissioner. When Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police Stephen Fontana gave detailed evidence of specific links between organised crime and union officials, the CFMEU outrageously accused him of engaging in 'cultural warfare' and being 'part of the problem'.

On 30 October, Victorian Secretary John Setka smeared Assistant Commissioner Fontana on his Twitter account. I would like to table a copy of the tweet.

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could we have a copy of the document to have a look at it, which is the normal practice before a senator seeks to table it?

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You sure can.

Leave granted.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Senate for allowing me to table the tweet. On the tweet he smeared Assistant Commissioner Fontana on his Twitter account as, 'Abbott and Napthine's number one soldier.' One would think that the union's crude attack on the assistant commissioner should be reason enough for any decent leader or aspirant to be shamed into taking action.

Given the CFMEU's record of retribution against courageous whistleblowers, I am very concerned at what an Andrews ALP government may have in store for the assistant commissioner at the behest of its favourite union. Why does Mr Andrews continue to support this corrupt union? Is it because the CFMEU is the second-largest union donor to Labor? Or is it because Mr Andrews relies on its factional support to remain in power?

At the 2013 Labor state conference, Mr Andrews shared centre stage with Mr Setka and his lackey, Shaun Reardon. This is the same John Setka who was described as a 'good man' by Mick Gatto. This is the same Shaun Reardon who marched alongside Comancheros Sergeant-at-Arms Norm Meyer. A vote for the Labor Party is a vote for the CFMEU, the Carlton Crew and the Comancheros, who would love nothing more than to have a weak Labor government giving them free reign over Victorian building sites.

Victorian Labor has no moral compass when it comes to union rorts, rackets and rip-offs, even when they extend to clear criminal behaviour. Once upon a time Labor leaders knew where to draw the line. John Cain got a lot of things wrong as Premier. But he had the political integrity to deregister the BLF when it was clearly involved in corrupt behaviour. Mr Cain famously said that he 'removed this rogue organisation from the Victorian industrial scene'. And we thank him. But Mr Andrews would give this union the keys to No. 1 Treasury Place. If Dan really is the man, he needs to man up. No glossy photo-shoot can whitewash the dirty stain of union slush funds from him; and no new haircut or pair of new, hipster glasses can distract Victorians from Dan's 'Dirty Half Dozen'.