Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, Bill D'Arcy, Keith Wright—the list goes on, Senator Brandis. All I'm saying to someone relatively new like Senator Kitching is: be careful where you go on this. You expect this from people like Senator McKim, from the Greens, who simply can't help himself. But I just warn senators against embarking upon this sort of approach. If you have a policy attack, fine.

Getting back to the subject of Senator Ketter's motion to take note of the answer he was given by Senator Brandis, Senator Brandis has explained this and Mr Turnbull has explained this—it's not our preferred position. All of the quotes that Senator Ketter used in the past are accurate regarding those. I've said that myself, not that that matters at all. It isn't the way we want to go. I've often said that these royal commissions just put money in the pockets of already wealthy lawyers and give journalists a two-year free go without having to do a lot of work. They don't achieve much. The government has, by contrast, already implemented a lot of legislation which will address some of the real problems with the banks.

But, in talking about this policy issue, I noticed how different Senator Ketter's question was to the approach of Senator Cameron and Senator Kim Carr, two of the loudest members in this chamber, who clearly exemplify what we understand about bullying at union meetings. You'll notice they always pick on a female senator, one who, I might say, takes the fight up to the corrupt unions, continuing to expose the CFMEU and other unions for their absolute corruption and their criminal activities that are before the courts all of the time. The Labor Party hates this, and so Senator Cameron, Senator Carr and a few others embarked upon a program—