Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

In relation to that report honourable senators will be aware of my comments earlier in the week about the influence of the trade union movement on the ALP. The figures released by the commission on Monday showed that a staggering $4.65 million was paid by unions directly to ALP coffers. On top of that massive $4.65 million there was a further $6.1 million spent on direct political campaigning by the unions on behalf of the Labor government.

I have done a bit of work in relation to this and I have been asking myself for some time, ‘What’s the relationship between the Labor members and senators and their particular unions?’