Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm the following events: by midday yesterday Senator Cash had told the Senate five times her office was not aware of imminent police raids before they began, but at 6.10 pm Alice Workman of BuzzFeed reported that journalists had received a leak about the raids from Senator Cash's office, and at 7:30 pm, realising that the truth had been exposed, Senator Cash finally admitted she'd misled the Senate?

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

What I can confirm is that Senator Cash defends the interests of trade union members in a way the Leader of the Opposition never did. She defends them. Let's look at this bastion of advocacy for the members of the AWU. This is what the Leader of the Opposition said at the royal commission:

It is perfectly consistent with the tradition of the trade union movement to have services provided by unions paid for by employers.

Regrettably, it is, and one of the services provided by unions to employees is trading away their penalty rates—that's what they get paid for, in example after example of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members for Bendigo and Griffith are both warned.

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

Over a million dollars was paid to the AWU by employers when the Leader of the Opposition was the secretary. There was one payment after another from Thiess-John Holland, ACI Glass, Chiquita Mushrooms—that really worked out well for the members, didn't it?—and Huntsman chemicals. It's a long list, and one payment after another was found by the royal commission to have no benefit for members and, indeed, to compromise the interests of the members because it compromised the ability of the union to represent them.

What we have done is pass legislation to prevent those corrupt payments being made—to prevent secret payments being made.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ballarat is warned.

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

The Labor Party, who are shouting and yelling out, shouted and yelled then. They hated it. They thought there was nothing worse than allowing members to know when the employer was actually paying money to the union.

The fact is that what Senator Cash has done is ensure that the standards of integrity and impartiality are applied to the union movement. That's what she has done, and in a way that the Leader of the Opposition never did when trading away penalty rates and taking money from employers. That was the pattern and that is coming to an end because of legislation we passed and they opposed.