Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Heydon QC said:

What I am concerned about more is your credibility as a witness; a witness—and perhaps your self interest as a witness as well.

The commissioner did not believe him, because he had serious doubts about the veracity.

On Mr Shorten's watch as AWU secretary, massive conflicts of interest and ripping off his own AWU members in crooked side deals with employers like Cleanevent were the order of the day—in fact, precisely the kind of moral corruption that the government's fair work amendment bill sought to outlaw. Now he has the gross hypocrisy to denounce the Fair Work Commission decision to reduce penalty rates. Such blatant hypocrisy is almost unbelievable. Can you imagine this man as Prime Minister? Even the small change you keep from the laundromat would not be safe left lying around. How on earth can Labor senators denounce the Fair Work Commission's decision with a straight face, knowing that their leader has done exactly the same thing on the sly? Have you no shame?

I ask you, my fellow senators: what does this say about Labor senators who support this man as their leader? Even the opposition leader's predecessor, former Prime Minister Paul Keating, has given a damning indictment of Labor's performance under the stewardship of Mr Shorten. In a recent biography, which can be found today in the remainder bins of all the best bookshops, Mr Keating was quoted as saying that the Labor Party under Mr Shorten had lost its way and that unions under leaders such as the former head of the AWU, Mr Shorten, lacked the focus on the national interest they once had. In a rare moment of clarity, Mr Keating observed that under the leadership of Mr Shorten Labor has 'a leadership deficit'. But I would go further. I would say the Leader of the Opposition has a credibility deficit. Where are you when we need you, Ben Chifley and John Curtin? Today you would be standing with us as One Nation senators.

There is a Sicilian saying: a fish rots from the head. This is exactly what we see with the current Labor Party. A political leader who, whilst a union official, took secret commissions to sell out his own fellow union members creates a culture in which nefarious and venal behaviour by unions becomes acceptable.