Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The undermining of the leader of the Labor Party has begun in earnest by the contribution of left-wing Senator Sterle, because one thing is very clear: in his attack on the member for Lyne, he must have known that we on this side would respond with the information that the Labor leader himself moonlighted whilst in opposition and earned consultancies of $130,000. Talk about two pay cheques; talk about duplicity. That is exactly what the Australian Labor Party does: don’t do as we do, just do as we say because we will always do differently to that which we say.

Here we have the Labor leader, whilst in opposition, moonlighting with a consultancy, which is something that Senator Sterle condemned. Hello! Did we ever hear him condemn that whilst they were in opposition. Talk about earning a second pay cheque for his family. One hundred and thirty thousand dollars is more than a backbencher earns in a full 12 months. If Senator Sterle is so upset about that, where was his condemnation of Mr Rudd?

Indeed, if he was so concerned about people not being here for all of question time, he might like to explain why the now leader of the Labor Party, Mr Rudd, was squired around the world, courtesy of Chinese companies, to Sudan, to China, to the US and to England. And do you know what? He missed one question time after another because he went on these trips whilst the parliament was actually sitting. There is no condemnation of Mr Rudd there. What we have is another clear example of Labor saying, ‘Do as we say, but don’t do as we do.’

But let us come back to the member for Flynn. I can understand why those opposite would not want to hear that the massively wealthy Guangzhou based property developer Zhou Zerong paid for one of Mr Rudd’s trips. He also paid for the Treasurer to visit China. Woodside, the Perth based energy company, also paid for Mr Rudd to go to China. A company called Beijing AustChina Technology Ltd funded Mr Rudd’s trip to England, the US, Sudan and China in June-July 2006, and the last trip happened when parliament was sitting. Mr Rudd missed not one but several question times, all while being funded by a telecommunications company. On top of all that he got $130,000 in extra consultancy fees.

Yet the Australian Labor Party seek to condemn those on the other side. The only reason they have thrown Mr Vaile into the equation is that they have been caught red-handed, with the new member for Flynn still appearing in advertisements trying to trade on his parliamentary career to boost his conveyancing business. One of the slogans of his advertisement is: ‘Fixed fees, no surprises.’ Well, I have got a surprise for the member for Flynn. Whilst his motto may be ‘no surprises’, there is a surprise, and that is that his own Labor colleagues condemn the double pay cheque. I am sure Senator Sterle will be around to the office of the new member for Flynn as soon as this debate is over to condemn him for double dipping and for breaking the Labor Party’s standard of having two pay cheques coming in to that family from Mr Charles’s own resources.

What we have here is an abrogation of duty and responsibility. The Leader of the Government in the Senate, upon being questioned by Senator Ronaldson, should have immediately said that he would check up on the allegation and come back to this chamber. The Labor Party talks about running surpluses. The only surplus we have seen thus far is a surplus of arrogance and abrogation in relation to the duty to the people of Australia.