Inquiry ‘low-rent’
Shorten and Labor colleagues hit back after commission grilling
LABOR frontbenchers have come out swinging over the union royal commission, with Senator Kim Carr comparing it to a “show trial” by a “totalitarian regime”.
As he tried to switch attention away from a bruising two-day grilling about his union past, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten dismissed the inquiry as a “tawdry” and “low-rent” government attempt to “smear their rivals”.
Mr Shorten said he had answered 900 questions, and he accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of trying to distract the public from problems in the government.
“We have just seen an $80 million taxpayer-funded Tony Abbott royal commission to smear their opponents,” Mr Shorten said. “But 900 questions later, I think Australians now have the right to ask Mr Abbott a question: when will you get on with the business of running Australia?”
Senator Carr went further, accusing the government of using “state power in a way that we haven’t seen in this country”.
“These are all the hallmarks of a totalitarian regime trying to put its political opponents on trial in a process which is not even a court, it’s a political inquisition,” Senator Carr said yesterday.
He suggested Labor could retaliate with inquiries into the Liberal Party when next in government.
Mr Abbott did not directly criticise Mr Shorten, saying he wasn’t in the business of giving out “character assessments” of his political opponents.
But he said the inquiry had exposed an “underbelly ... of dodgy unionism in this country”.
The government is already trying to capitalise on Mr Shorten’s interrogation over allegations he gained benefits and had conflicts of interest in deals he struck while running the Australian Workers’ Union.
Cabinet minister Bruce Billson said Mr Shorten’s undisclosed election campaign donation from an employer that his union was negotiating a wage deal with was like a bribe.
“Imagine if you had a trusted mate buying a car for you, trying to get you a good deal, then you find out your mate is getting a sling from the man who is selling the car. That’s just dodgy,” Mr Billson told Channel Nine.
Senator Carr and Labor front- bencher Gary Gray accused Mr Billson of hypocrisy because he attended fundraisers where Mafia figures donated money to the Liberal Party.
Mr Gray said the inquiry was “designed to damage Bill”, but he would be strengthened by it.
“That’s what makes leaders, and that’s what’s going to make Bill,” he said.
Labor Senator Sam Dastyari said that Mr Shorten had answered so many questions, “most Australians now know more about Bill Shorten than they do about their own partners”.