Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw that last comment, Chair, and thank you very much. Let us be very clear. This government has no tolerance for corruption. We have no tolerance for criminal activity in the construction sector. That is why this government took the strongest action of any government of any persuasion when it came to cleaning up the CFMEU. We appointed an administrator. We support the administrator to do their work. We've had 121 individuals removed and we've made more progress in 18 months than those opposite made in nine years of government.

I want to make very clear, as was made clear to the shadow minister in question time, that the minister received the final report and did not request a single change. We can have 10 minutes from those opposite telling us a whole range of things, but it was clear from the contribution from the shadow minister that, despite asking questions in question time—and I congratulate the shadow minister for doing very well in their tactics of getting a large number of questions; I could see the jealousy of those behind you from that very odd place that I sit at, over there, during question time—they were not listening to the response. But what I think we also saw just then was 10 minutes of a brand-new television channel that has launched today.

Today, I watched with interest the interview with the shadow minister on Laura Jayes—he said two very interesting things. Firstly, he said, 'It doesn't matter who sits in the swivel chair.' Well, I think that is very interesting. He looks pretty comfortable there right now. I did note that the member for Farrer stayed for the shadow minister's remarks; I noticed that the member for Hume managed to get out of here pretty quickly. But I'm sure it was a great comfort for the Leader of the Opposition when the member for Goldstein said it didn't matter who sat in the swivel chair. But that wasn't the bit of the interview that excited me. The bit that excited me was the launch of a brand-new—I assume it's free to air—station. It might be pay per view. I don't know; you'd have to ask. The member opposite said, 'It has, on "channel Tim"'—and Laura Jayes said: 'Channel Tim. I like it.' Well I've just seen 10 minutes of 'channel Tim' and I don't know if I really liked what I saw. I think we'll leave it to the public to review.

We know the sorts of things that will get on 'channel Tim'. You can be guaranteed that 'channel Tim' will have a lot of self-promotion. We have seen that on Politics Now, very openly. On Boxing Day, which is a day for giving gifts, there was a gift from the member for Goldstein. When asked about his possible desire to seek higher office and to possibly get into the leadership role, he said:

I think there's a scenario where that can happen, but I think events will have to turn in my favour.

That's what he told the podcast. But he's been out there—every couple of months there's a new thing. If you go back a month earlier and look at the great industrial relations policy—the only industrial relations policy that's actually been released by those opposite was their commitment to not have parliament sit on Melbourne Cup Day. The member for Goldstein guaranteed:

I make this commitment: this will never happen under a Wilson government.

A singular policy—wanting to make sure that he and his colleagues get a day off on Melbourne Cup Day. But, while he wants to give himself—

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