Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

They find themselves so out of touch with community expectations about the union movement and corruption and thuggery that they are now describing a former justice of the High Court, a royal commissioner of the standing of Dyson Heydon, as a bagman! That is how badly Labor has fallen because of their obsession and because of their symbiotic relationship with the trade union movement. And that is why they are unfit for public office in this country.

If the Labor Party were ever to be back on the government benches again we would see what is happening in Victoria right now under Daniel Andrews, where the CFMEU is back at the cabinet table. That is what would happen in this country, nationally; we would see the union movement back at the cabinet table. It is bad enough that they will not support the Australian Building and Construction Commission. It is bad enough that they will not support the Registered Organisations Commission. They are now traducing the reputation of the royal commissioner, Dyson Heydon.

Well, you will not get that on this side of the House. We stand up for the worker on this side of the House. We are not trading away their penalty rates at Clean Event, or Winslow Constructors or nameless other businesses that we do not know about yet.

The other thing we are seeing today is the Labor Party borrowing from the Keating playbook. When this happened before, many years ago, I was in this parliament—

Ms Butler interjecting—

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