Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I can also tell the House that the Fair Work Commission found that $267,721 of Health Services Union members' money was used in the Dobell campaign to elect Craig Thomson, the former member for Dobell. So $1.2 million went from the Health Services Union to the Australian Labor Party and $267,000 of Health Services Union money was found by the Fair Work Commission to have been used to elect the member for Dobell.

I can also tell the House that the Labor Party paid $350,000 of legal fees for the member for Dobell prior to the last election in order to maintain his vote in the parliament. Senator Sam Dastyari admitted that was paid in order to make sure that he remained in the House and they could, therefore, rely on his vote. Here is an important test for the Leader of the Opposition because he has failed the test on the Registered Organisations Commission, he has failed the test on the Australian Building and Construction Commission and he has failed the test on the royal commission into union corruption. But this is an important test. If it was good enough for the Labor Party to use their members' funds to fund the legal defence of Craig Thomson, the former member for Dobell, will the Labor Party pay back the $267,000 to the Health Services Union members that was taken illegally by the former member for Dobell to use in his campaign to be elected? This is the test for the Leader of the Opposition. If he really stands on the side of workers, he would direct the Labor Party national office to repay $267,000 to some of the poorest workers in the economy, to those members who faithfully handed over their membership dues to the union bosses—

Ms Rishworth interjecting—

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