Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He was spot on, Senator Bernardi. Perhaps we could ask Senator Brandis whether he agrees with this statement of the former Prime Minister John Howard. Perhaps that was one of the reasons Senator Brandis allegedly referred to the former Prime Minister John Howard as a 'lying rodent'.

What happened to the once respectable Liberal Party? What happened to the great and mighty Liberal Party of the days of old? It was the party that agreed with liberal ideals, natural justice and due process—but no longer. Under Tony Abbott, the current Leader of the Liberal Party, they resort to muckraking and gutter politics. On the subject of the Fair Work Australia investiga­tion, Tony Abbott said in August last year:

The Fair Work Australia investigation has taken one hell of a long time, two years at least, and I think it's high time that investigation was brought to a conclusion.

Again the Leader of the Liberal Party was placing undue pressure on Fair Work Australia about an investigation that is currently underway.

In August 2011 Senator Ronaldson joined in. I have a lot of respect for Senator Ronaldson, but I think he overstepped the mark on this issue when he, in a media release in August 2011, said:

Workplace Relations Minister, Senator Chris Evans, must step in and instruct Fair Work Australia to finalise their investigations …

This is highly inappropriate. There are good reasons that Senator Evans and the govern­ment have not stepped in: Fair Work Austra­lia is an independent statutory authority, and it is highly inappropriate for any government or politician to seek to direct or influence an independent authority to conclude an investi­gation once it is underway. It must run its proper course free of political interference.

The great irony here is that the opposition accuses the government of undue interfere­nce and then the next day comes out and says that we should be interfering; that we should be pressuring Fair Work Australia to conclu­de its investigations. The govern­ment's actions have been entirely appropri­ate, consistent with Fair Work Australia's independent authority, which was established by—importantly—the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act. We have allowed them to conduct a proper investigation and that investigation must secure all the facts and be allowed to run its proper course.