Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) and the Minister for Employment (Senator Abetz) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption and to meetings of the Cabinet.

I think it is important to reflect, yet again, on the discussion we have had in relation to the trade union royal commission because ministers attempt to say such questions are repetitive, that we are just rehashing old territory and then they start getting even more defensive. Once again, I got a lecture from Senator Brandis about my tone—though I think this was a first. They are issues that, fortunately, the President has indicated he will take away and look at as well. But it reminds me of the suggestion recently from Laura Tingle that some things for this government are almost like new religions. National security was one recently, but even the appropriate behaviour of royal commissioners seems to be another—how dare one ask questions. The point here is that the questions that are being asked are not repetitive. This story seems to be evolving.

The answers provided by both Senator Abetz and Senator Brandis today, with respect, are somewhat desperate if not pathetic. The comparison that Senator Brandis made to today about the future behaviour of former politicians was extraordinarily weak. We saw that Senator Abetz needed to correct his reference to a past appointment of Commissioner Heydon by, he thought at first, Neville Wran, but, as it turns out, it was Bob Carr. But, with respect, it is much like the debate about whether it is a fundraiser, an unsuccessful fundraiser, a Liberal Party event or whatever. The real point is that Commissioner Heydon, when he was a commissioner into trade union behaviour, chose to accept an invitation to a Liberal Party event and it was clear, by virtue of it calling for donations, that it was also a fundraiser. Now, he tells us that he overlooked certain connections. It seems as if he overlooked them a couple of times.

The point I made in question time was that that is all well and good—all of us overlook things on occasions—but Commissioner Heydon needs to apply the same standards that he applies to those whom he is investigating. As a recent article by Helen Davidson and Lenore Taylor points out, this has not been the case during the course of the royal commission. He has on several occasions admonished people. Indeed, Senator Abetz, it was not Mr Shorten who was highlighted as one of the three people on this occasion; it was Ralph Blewitt, it was Julia Gillard and it was Leah Charlson who were all admonished for overlooking something once—not twice, three times or four times over several months.

The core issue is whether Commissioner Heydon's position in this case has become partisan. That is the core issue. What is evolving are, of course, other associations that are important. This gives me a chance to reflect on a comment that I made yesterday about a link between the invitation—and I was not quite sure who but it might have been the Law Council or the Law Society of New South Wales that had a link to this invitation that I questioned, but, as it turns out, it was actually the New South Wales Bar Association. Professional associations of lawyers, in my view, do need to be careful about their party political links and connections because, at the end of the day, despite quite eminent appointments in the past, their partisanship in the future may become an issue as it has in relation to this royal commission.

The other associations, as it turns out over the last day or so, have highlighted the close relationship that Commissioner Heydon has to the now Prime Minister through the constitutional monarchy legal committee, through his position on the selection panel for Mr Abbott's Rhodes scholarship, and one wonders what else. The key issue here, though, is that the Prime Minister has failed to appoint someone to this trade union royal commission who can maintain a sense of balance and impartiality. This is the Prime Minister's fail and he has failed because we all know it has always been a witch-hunt. (Time expired)