Senator CONROY (Victoria—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (16:26): I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, and I welcome a discussion on political donation reform and how we can best protect our vital democratic traditions. Labor has a proven track record when it comes to donation reform and has tried to legislate on multiple occasions to reform the political donation system, and there is the great irony of this issue. Here today we have the Greens calling on Labor to 'commit to comprehensive and immediate political donations reform'. The hypocrisy of the Greens political party knows absolutely no bounds, because when Labor tried to implement comprehensive donation reform in March—not 10 years ago, not five years ago, not three years ago— Senator Rhiannon interjecting— Senator CONROY: In March, when they had the numbers they were more interested in trying to do over Senator Hanson-Young. They were more interested in trying to do over one of their own—it was a spectacular own goal on that front. You just cannot rely on those party members in South Australia to do the dirty work for you, can you? But it is all right, you got her later this year; you got her after the election. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Back ): Through the chair, Senator. Senator CONROY: My apologies, Mr Acting Deputy President. The Greens teamed up with the Liberal and National parties and did a filthy deal. As part of that filthy deal on Senate voting reform, the Greens voted against their own platform to defeat a Labor amendment that would have comprehensively reformed political donations in this country. So the Greens had the chance, they had the leverage and they had the bargaining power, and they rolled over for their own selfish political interests. The self-proclaimed shining lights of progressive politics got down in the mud and did a dirty deal to try to put more Green bums on red seats. They failed in that too, because there is one less of them today than when they did that deal. They sacrificed all of their principles and managed to throw former Senator Simms under the bus in the process. Senator Rhiannon interjecting— Senator CONROY: Now, I know that was not actually the plan; it was Senator Hanson-Young who was to go under the bus. But I appreciate those South Australian Democrats members threw a bit of a spanner in the works of Senator Di Natale and friends. I am not actually holding you responsible for this one, Senator Rhiannon, and I know where you stand on those issues. What leadership old fancypants himself has shown! What leadership has Senator Di Natale shown here! Time and time again the Greens have been happy to make all of the noises, make all of the accusations and throw all of the muck, but when a chance came to do the right thing—to not even do the right thing; how about voting for your own party platform just this once—what happened? The Greens threw away the opportunity, rolled over and then wanted to come in and, as usual, lecture the Labor Party. So, just in the last week, we have seen Senator Di Natale imploring Australia to: … move away from a system of huge corporate and foreign donations influencing the decisions that are made in Canberra. What a fine sentiment! Yet, when Senator Di Natale says this, he fails to mention that it was the Greens that happily received almost $27,000 in gifts, in kind, from a New Zealand company ahead of the 2010 election. I know we have the closer economic relationship and I know we consider ourselves very close to New Zealand, but my check of geography is: they are not part of the Commonwealth; they actually decided not to join the Commonwealth. And that makes it a foreign corporation. Happy to take the dough back then! When Senator Di Natale gives these lectures, he fails to mention that in 2010 the Greens received what was—and will continue to be until, I suspect, the next exposures next February—the largest single political donation in Australian history: more than $1.6 million from Graeme Wood, the founder of Wotif.com. One point six million dollars in one hit. Wow! Well, we know who owns you. One point six million dollars! Senator Di Natale, again, when he lectures everybody else, fails to mention that that same Mr Wood donated a further $630,000 to the Greens in the lead-up to the 2016 federal election. As Senator Macdonald said earlier, Mr Wood felt that that $1.6 million was the best investment he ever made—enough to donate another $630,000. I do not know anybody who has ever donated $630,000 dollars to me or the Labor Party, but that comes to nearly $2 million, across a couple of elections, from one person. But not one to let the facts get in the way, Senator Di Natale has ploughed on, claiming that the Greens 'don't accept donations from developers'. He claimed: 'We don't accept donations from the alcohol industry, from the gambling industry and so on.' Once again, he failed to mention that the Greens have received donations of more than $585,000 from Duncan Turpie—a mathematician and a known high-end gambler. A high-end gambler gave you $585,000 for this election. It must be wonderful having these sugar daddies, Senator Lambie; it really must! The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Back ): Through the chair, Senator Conroy. Senator CONROY: Sorry; my apologies, Mr Acting Deputy President—through you: Senator Lambie, it would be lovely to have a sugar daddy like this, wouldn't it? They stand condemned by their own actions and deeds. And, Senator Rhiannon, I have not seen you stand up and say, 'Let's not accept a donation of over $1,000 from an individual.' I have not seen you stand up and say that. 'Developers? Yeah, that's okay. High-end gamblers? We'll take their money—$585,000.' So the Greens stand condemned—condemned by their own actions and deeds. And no amount of trumped-up moral outrage can hide the Greens' hypocrisy. So I look forward to seeing how you justify accepting these huge donations from two or three individuals. Of course, the Greens are not alone in adopting a shambolic approach to donation reform. While Labor has been clear and consistent in our approach, the Liberals are hopelessly divided. I have said this before, Mr Acting Deputy President, but I am not surprised the Liberal Party sent Senator Bernardi to New York, to the UN, because this is what he has had to say on a multitude of issues; I am just going to pick on one today. He said: It's wrong for substantial amounts of money from foreign entities in non-democratic governments to flow into [the] Australian body-politic. Well, you do not want to ban those. Mr Pyne said, 'No, we don't want to ban those.' I will bet I know why. I bet you want to extend his holiday, using a foreign donation—anything to keep him out of the country, Senator Back, anything! As to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, what a week we have seen from him while the Prime Minister was overseas! Former Prime Minister Abbott got a new lease of life. He said: … "I think it is time to look at donations reform again. "We need to look long and hard at restricting donations to real people on the electoral roll. To that end, there should be no union donations, company donations or foreign donations." Yet, astonishingly, as I have already alluded to, the government's Leader in the House, Mr Pyne, has said that he is 'unfussed about foreign donations'—'unfussed'! Well, let me tell you: I saw a poll today that showed that Mr Pyne is in a category of 12 per cent of Australians, with the other 88 per cent going, 'Just a minute. We're not "unfussed" about receiving foreign donations!' Then again, yesterday, here in the chamber, Senator Ryan said that he was: … a believer that people who want to make a contribution to our political process should be able to do so. So they are running up the barricades. They had a lot of fun at Senator Dastyari's expense over the last two weeks. But, when it came to actually making a difference, they started to dig a hole, and they are going to barricade themselves and put the wagons around. Perhaps it is okay, because the foreign minister wants to see hundreds of thousands of dollars continue to flow into the coffers of the Western Australian Liberal Party from Chinese-linked companies that do not even have any business in Western Australia. You have to ask yourself: why does a Chinese company with zero business interests in Western Australia donate nearly $600,000 to the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party? Senator Smith, I see you smiling over there. Is it your winning smile? I am afraid I suspect not. But perhaps— (Time expired)