Coalition pays tribute to senator’s integrity while Greens focus on $1.7m of political donations made by Day and his company

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The resignation of the Family First senator Bob Day has polarised the parliament, after the government praised his integrity and the Greens criticised $1.7m of political donations made by him and his company.

Day announced he would quit the Senate on Monday after his company, Home Australia Pty Ltd, went into liquidation.

In a statement, the government leader in the Senate, George Brandis, praised Day, saying he had decided to quit to deal with the “pain, stress and suffering” resulting from the collapse of his housing construction business.

“Senator Day has, very honourably, given personal guarantees to his company’s creditors, so he and his family will be directly affected by these events,” he said.

Brandis thanked Day for his service and described him as a “a consistent advocate for reforming Australia’s industrial relations system and for traditional family values”.

The Greens’ democracy spokeswoman, Lee Rhiannon, said the collapse of Day’s building company was “another reminder of the need for far-reaching electoral funding reform” including caps on political donations from individuals.

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“While Bob Day’s building empire, Home Australia, was leaving many, many people in financial stress, Bob Day was pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own party’s coffers,” she said.

According to Rhiannon, Day and his company donated more than $1.7m to Family First between 2010 and 2015.

“The people who had been left high and dry by his building company were forced to watch as Senator Day bankrolled his own political career. You can see why the public cynicism and contempt runs deep.”

Day was a firm supporter of the government’s industrial relations agenda to reintroduce a tougher building regulator and increase accountability of union officials.

Day’s chief of staff, Rikki Lambert, has put his hand up to replace him in the Senate, which would likely result in policy continuity including continued support for those bills.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said that when Day retired he assumed he would be replaced by another Family First member.

“We would then seek to persuade the new senator in the same way as we seek to persuade the other crossbench senators,” he said.

Turnbull noted the government still had the option of a joint sitting to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill and another bill to introduce a new union regulator.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union’s national secretary, Dave Noonan, said that the collapse of Day’s company demonstrated the “devastating consequences” of insolvencies in the construction sector.

“One in five insolvencies in Australia are in the construction industry,” he said.

Noonan said the Senate education and employment committee had made a raft of recommendations to protect small businesses and workers after an inquiry last year but the Turnbull government had not implemented its recommendations.

“Instead they are fixated on industrial relations and going after workers, rather than address the systemic issues that wreak havoc on the community and the economy,” he said.