Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is great to be able to respond to Senator Conroy and the rant that we just heard. What is clear about the Labor Party and what was made clear again by that contribution from Senator Conroy is that they are not concerned about rorts, rackets and rip-offs; they are only concerned about rorts, rackets and rip-offs that involve someone who is no longer one of their own. We know, despite all the allegations against Kathy Jackson, that she used to be one of their best mates. She was one of Bill Shorten's best mates. She was one of Senator Conroy's best mates. She was embedded in their factional system in the Victorian ALP. The only time they started to care about her activities was when she started blowing the whistle on other people's dodgy activities within the union movement.

So that is what we are talking about here. Did the ALP care about Michael Williamson's rorts, the president of the ALP? No, they did not care about the rorts. And what about Craig Thomson? Did you know about Craig Thomson? Yes, you knew about Craig Thomson. And what did you do when you found out about Craig Thomson? You put him up for preselection, he got preselected and then you defended him. You used ALP money to defend him. Perhaps Senator Dastyari could get up in this debate and tell us why he believed he should authorise hundreds of thousands of dollars of ALP money to defend Craig Thomson's rip-offs and rorts. They have had Michael Williamson and they have had Craig Thomson. We have seen the long line in the CFMEU.

That takes me to the other protection racket: the CFMEU and its relationship with the Australian Labor Party.