George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Whish-Wilson, you ask how I compare them. They are incomparably different. Even in your primary question you were able to cite three or four instances—in each case, by the way, defended or disputed—of misconduct in a sector that is near to universally acknowledged as a well prudentially regulated sector. Compare that, as you invited me to do in your question, with the systemic criminality and corruption of large areas of the trade union movement—unions like the CFMEU, and not merely the CFMEU but also unions like the AWU, which was responsible for the disgrace of the Cleanevent case, directly involving the Leader of the Opposition, where the union took money so as to not prosecute the interests of the workers. There is no comparison at all.