Senator ABETZ (Tasmania—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Employment) (14:55): I thank Senator Bernardi for his ongoing interest in seeking to clean up fraudulent misuse of union members' funds, which I would have thought those opposite would agree with. Today we were told that the five-year-old Thomson case would be dragging out even longer with today's appeal against conviction and sentence. Members of the Health Services Union are right to feel frustrated at the time taken to deliver justice in that case. Generally I can inform the Senate that the government are adopting a two-pronged approach to stamping out corruption in the trade union movement. Firstly, we have introduced the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill. We have designed that bill to give proper transparency to prevent the kinds of frauds we have seen and witnessed with alarming regularity. Indeed, according to Mr Bolano of the HSU, this is not 'one or two bad apples'. He says: 'There is a protection racket around these people. It is symptomatic of the union movement.' So let us make no bones about it: using members' funds to run re-election slush funds is just plain wrong, as it is to spend that money on elections in other unions or for the House of Representatives let alone on more nefarious purposes. Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Abetz, you are entitled to be heard in silence. I remind honourable senators on my left that interjections are disorderly and if this keeps up we may need to take other steps. Senator ABETZ: It is no wonder that those opposite, most of whom being former trade union officials, are interjecting as they are. Their slogan for the trade union movement was 'Your rights at work'. Do you know what their real slogan is? It is 'Our rorts at work'. That is what Labor are trying to— Senator Cameron interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order, Senator Cameron! If people want me to stand and start issuing warnings, I will. Senator ABETZ: Those opposite are most anxious to ensure that their rorts at work can continue. We, as a government, believe that they should not be allowed to. That is what the public thinks, that is what union members think, but regrettably Mr Shorten and the Labor Party in this place do not believe so. (Time expired)