Shane Ross (Independent)

I congratulate Senator O'Toole on the deals he did in the past in terms of benchmarking. They were brilliant, but the did nothing for the poor or underprivileged. They did a great deal for the public service, and that was his job at the time.

I come to the main issue, to which Senator O'Toole is not party, because he is a Member of this House and not a member of a union. His words today are falling on deaf ears, but when he was head of ICTU and the INTO he was negotiating a magnificent deal and exerting enormous influence in Government Buildings. That is what I call the democratic deficit. Senator O'Toole is the democratic deficit now — powerless and weak, a political eunuch who some time ago was a great feudal baron in Government Buildings.