Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education (Senator Cash) to a question without notice asked by Senator Watt today relating to a raid by the Australian Federal Police on the offices of the Australian Workers Union.

Today in question time we learned a couple of things in the never-ending saga of Senator Cash and her involvement and her office's involvement in the police raids on AWU offices. We learned shortly before question time, through media reports, that, finally, her former chief of staff has now been served with a subpoena to appear in court and give evidence as to his knowledge of the police raids on union offices. We also learned from those media reports that it actually took private investigators being hired in order to track him down and serve him with those documents. He, of course, is not the only person who seems to have been in hiding over this entire affair. Senator Cash herself has a history of hiding from providing information to the Senate and to the public about her involvement in this affair, most particularly her infamous appearance behind whiteboards before a Senate estimates hearing.

When Senator Cash was asked about this today, she claimed not to know about this. I sat here thinking, 'When have I heard this before from Senator Cash?' Of course, it goes back to the very beginning of this affair, when she came into estimates and repeatedly told the Senate that she didn't know anything and her office didn't know anything about the leaking of the information to the media about the police raid. Her staff didn't tell her—that's what she told us at the time. Again here today we have Senator Cash telling the Senate that she doesn't know about media reports that her former chief of staff has been served with a subpoena. Forgive me if I'm a little bit sceptical about Senator Cash.

What we do know, though, is that Senator Cash herself has been served with a subpoena to appear in court and give evidence. It's about time she fronted up. Instead, she's instructed her taxpayer funded lawyers to challenge the subpoena. She needs to front up and explain her knowledge.

Question agreed to.