Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

'Left-wing union offers Shorten boats lifeline—this is by Andrew Probyn and Nick Butterly in the WeekendWest in July of 2015. It says: 'The militant left-wing construction union is expected to swing behind Bill Shorten's embrace of boat turnbacks to ensure the Labor leader is not embarrassed by an ALP revolt.'

What has happened here is that this Leader of the Opposition has tried to fool the Australian public into believing that they actually have in the Labor Party the same resolve to stop boats and put the people smugglers out of business that we do. But we know it is not the case.

We have seen in the headlines of The Australian and elsewhere over the course of the last couple of days that John Setka from the Victorian branch of the CFMEU is a great friend of the Leader of the Opposition. He is a known criminal. He consorts with organised criminal figures and he is a great mate of the Leader of the Opposition. He even went to the election night party of the Leader of the Opposition. What would happen if the Leader of the Opposition became the Prime Minister at the next election? What would happen if Mr Setka was invited into the Lodge, for example? Worse still, what would happen if Mr Setka did not want to leave the Lodge? Imagine if Prime Minister Shorten turned up with a broken arm at question time and pretended he had slipped over at the Lodge, but actually he had been pushed down the steps by Mr John Setka, because that is the way these people operate. And let me tell you, Leader of the Opposition, if you consort with criminals, the Australian— (Time expired)

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