Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

in line with the new ideological leader of the labour movement, Sally McManus, the law should be followed by unions only when it suits them. So, the law is optional for trade unions, apparently. The CFMEU has always had that approach. And we brought them back, under the rule of law, with the restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and we will bring out all of those shonky payments, all of those secret payments, some of which have been listed here and many of which went to the Australian Workers' Union—mysterious payments about which the Leader of the Opposition is so proud. And that distinguished advocate the member for Isaacs has said—speaking, I am sure, for all of the members opposite—how proud they all are about the advocacy and leadership by the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Workers' Union, which involved the union receiving payments from one employer after another but never bothering to tell the members about it.

I wonder why that was? Why were those payments hidden? Was it because they did not want to trouble the equanimity of the members of the union? I do not think so. I think is was because they knew there was something wrong. People who have nothing to hide do not hide anything. What the Leader of the Opposition did, what the union bosses did, was set out to hide those payments. They hid them from view.

An opposition member: You're obsessed!

Oh, I am obsessed, am I?

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

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