Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Duniam for his question and, yes, I am. This morning we saw the extraordinary reports that, when he was National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, was allegedly delegated the power in 2006 to unilaterally donate AWU funds—that is, the membership fees of thousands and thousands of workers—to political campaigns of his choice. And what did he do? Well, he did make donations. When Mr Shorten was national secretary he gave $25,000 of his union's money to none other than himself. That's right; Mr Shorten used his position at the AWU to donate members' money—members' money that he was entrusted as the national secretary to use in their best interests—to his own safe seat campaign for parliament. This, colleagues, is of course eerily similar to the actions of another former Labor member of parliament, Mr Craig Thompson. Mr Craig Thompson was national secretary of the Health Services Union in 2007. Mr Bill Shorten was national secretary of the AWU at the same time. Mr Craig Thompson ran for parliament in 2007. So did Mr Shorten. Mr Thompson spent union members' money on his own political campaign. So did Mr Shorten. But there's one key difference: at least Mr Thompson fronted the parliament and gave an explanation as to why. It may not have been a very good explanation, but at least he told the parliament why. Mr Shorten still needs to explain on what authority he gave money—AWU money—to his own election campaign.