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

What we see now is the desperation the Labor Party has sunk to, because all the Leader of the Opposition has to do is tell us what that money was really for. What was that money really for? He talks about secret payments. I have made no payments, secret or otherwise—none. The fact of the matter is if the honourable member is suggesting that no litigation can ever be settled on confidential terms, they can move a private member's bill. They would do a bit of damage to the honourable member's own profession. It would never happen. I am sure the member for Isaacs has never been involved in a settlement like that—no, I suspect not; I suspect that is right. He has to keep those fees coming; he would not want to settle. The honourable member's pathetic attempt to amplify the politics-of-envy campaign by the Leader of the Opposition is as disingenuous as anything we have seen from the opposition benches. We are defending workers; you are selling them out. We did not sell out their penalty rates; Labor did. We did not take half a million dollars from an employer; that was the union the honourable member was leader of—taking money to sell members out and not telling them the truth about the money they are taking from the employers they are doing those dirty deals with. That is the difference: we want to see the light, we want to see the truth and we want to see the unions to own up to their members.

Honourable members interjecting—

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