Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The motion before the chamber is that the Senate take note of the answers given to questions asked by members of the Australian Labor Party. That is very difficult to do, because all of the questions were so juvenile, irrelevant and lacking any policy content that it makes it hard to debate on the questions asked.

This is from a party riven by factional enmities and full of, to quote Senator Cameron, lobotomised 'zombies', controlled and answerable to no-one except the criminals who are part of unions like the Health Services Union and the CFMEU. That is who the Australian Labor Party are directed by and answerable to. The CFMEU—thank heavens for the royal commission into trade unions—we know comprises many people who could not be described as anything but criminals. They are represented in this chamber by none other than the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Wong, a former employee of the CFMEU and a person who proved herself to be the worst environment minister we have had for many years, the worst finance minister we have had for many years and now the worst shadow trade minister that the country has ever seen.

This government is the same government that was elected on 13 September 2013 with a number of policies which we have implemented and continue to implement—policies like border protection and stopping people drowning at sea; abolition of the carbon tax; and creation of new jobs. In August alone, 17,000 new jobs were created by this government. The union royal commission has been set up as promised. Again, this government is proceeding with its policy, which it promised before the last election, to retain the definition of marriage for the term of this election and to provide that we will go to the Australian people for a decision on that in the next term of parliament. Those policies stand. That is what we were elected to do and we will continue to do. The new leader, Mr Turnbull, confirmed that last night.

With the Liberal and National parties Australians know what they are getting. They know that when our parties go to the election and promise certain things we will do them, no matter how hard the Labor Party and their allies in the Greens political party will try to put forward some other proposals. We are not like the Labor Party. We do not go to an election promising that there will be no carbon tax and then immediately following the election bring in exactly that. We will continue on the policy we took to the last election, and that will play out in Paris this year. This is a government which keeps its promises. This is a government which has set a path and which will continue on that path. Although the leadership has changed, the policies of the parties remain and the new leader has made that very clear.

By contrast, you have a group of people opposite run by the trade union movement. As I often say here, if the trade union movement were anywhere representative of Australia, it might give the Australian Labor Party some credibility. But I emphasise that, according to Bureau of Statistics figures, the union movement represent 12 per cent of workers in the private sector—that is, 88 per cent of all workers in the private sector choose not to join the union. The way the unions carry on, and the way their representatives in this chamber carry on, you can well understand why most hardworking Australian workers choose not to join a union. It is because they see the unions for the criminals and thugs that the royal commission has exposed them as and for the rabble that you see in this chamber opposite. (Time expired)