Royal Commission into the AWU allegations and Gillard's involvement long overdue

Prime Minister cannot continue to leave an example of 'trust me' and 'I was young and naive' while other Australians would have come before the justice system

Julia Gillard claimed that she was young and naive while her then partner, Bruce Wilson, siphoned members' funds from the AWU but instead she was a 36 year old lawyer, and a partner in the burgeoning law firm, Slater and Gordon.

A Royal Commission is long overdue into the AWU scandal and especially with the now 66 year old Ralph Blewitt coming out of nowhere, for whatever reasons, and publicly admitting wrong-doing and calling for his immunity from prosecution in order to provide testimony.

Australia cannot point the finger at other countries and lampoon them as tinpot regimes with keystone like processes, accusatory in terms of corruption, nepotism, cultures of favour dispensation, clandestine social but powerful networks to the point of being aversive to white collar criminality while grave questions remain like a dark pall over the Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, however indeed over the whole of parliament and therefore its parliamentary processes.

Darkly, the questionable circumstances that beguile aspersion in the public domain linger far beyond Julia Gillard and how she rose through the ALP and how too she is backed strongly by the powerful faction, the AWU. It was a lawyer, thereabouts the same age as Ms Gillard who pursued Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewitt for the monies, and who pursued the AWU to change its governance and ensure checks and balances so as to avoid a similar predicament arising. The lawyer was Robert McClelland who would go on to become Attorney-General appointed by Kevin Rudd and who would be sacked earlier this year by Julia Gillard because of his public support for the resurrection of Kevin Rudd as prime minister. McClelland not only was one of the lawyers acting on behalf of the AWU in advising what they should do to recover the funds however he became so immersed in remedying these wrongs that he did his Master thesis on the whole debacle. The other person who has also risen out of this kerfuffle into the Cabinet is Joe Ludwig, and at the time he was the national head of the AWU and as national president launched one legal pursuit after another to recover the monies and in that Mr Wilson be prosecuted.

In recent days it has been revealed that the investigating police at the time did want to prosecute Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt and indeed that they considered them 'crooks' - how is it then that they were never prosecuted and how is it that the funds have gone missing, and how is that that a judicial inquiry has never been launched?

It is the poorest of examples and the collapse from integrity for any parliamentarian to insist that one should be trusted alone, while other Australians would be brought before the various processes of the justice systems.

We can with good source advise readers that the Prime Minister and some of her aides have called various news media and chastised them to such an extent when stories of Mr Wilson and Ms Gillard's alleged involvement have flared into print or online that on occasion some news media has removed the online copy or from archives - this is censorship to remove or reduce access to a published article - and it is questionable in a climate of fear by some news media as to the looming but yet to be proposed media restrictions. There should only be few questions that a Prime Minister and parliamentarians should not be prepared to answer, and questions about alleged indiscretions, even by proximity to them, must be answered and often furthered by judicial inquiry - no-one should enter parliament or continue to hold parliamentary office if they are not prepared to urgently questions before judicial inquiry. The dark pall over the Australian government, as cleaned up on the surface by minions in abuses of power, rots the foundations of democracy and the integrity it hopes that foundations are mortared by.

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3310493.htm
All dredged up and nowhere to go
(Should the ABC be clouted around like this?)

http://lpickering.net/item/8305
FACEBOOK ADVISED THAT WE RISKED PERMANENT BANNING IF THIS FOLLOWING STORY WAS NOT REMOVED. IT WAS DULY REMOVED BUT RE-POSTED ON PICKERING’S WEB SITE. WE ARE RISKING RE-POSTING THE ARTICLE HERE NOW (without alteration) BECAUSE FURTHER INFORMATION HAS COME TO LIGHT REGARDING MAJOR MEDIA PHONE HACKING THAT IS APROPOS TO, AND A CONTINUANCE OF, THIS ARTICLE. (the rest of this in Links)

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/gillard-tangled-in-old-sc...
Gillard tangled in old scandal

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/gillard-yarn-claims-sca...

COPS WANTED JULIA GILLARD'S EX-PARTNER, BRUCE WILSON, CHARGED - by Hedley Thomas, The Australian, August 4

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/cops-wanted-julia-gi...

INTERNAL documents from an exhaustive police probe into a union funds scandal in the 1990s show detectives suspected former Australian Workers' Union boss Bruce Wilson and his then alleged bagman, Ralph Blewitt, were "crooks" and wanted them criminally prosecuted over a $400,000-plus alleged fraud.

The documents from the police file include letters showing leaders of the powerful AWU, which remains the most influential industrial supporter of the federal Labor government, were deeply annoyed that the two men were not charged with criminal offences.

Most of the funds that allegedly went missing had been paid into an entity, the AWU Workplace Reform Association.

Julia Gillard, as a solicitor at the time for Slater & Gordon lawyers in Melbourne, which acted for Mr Wilson, Mr Blewitt and the AWU, did legal work related to the establishment of the association in Western Australia.

At the time, Mr Wilson and the Prime Minister were in a close relationship. Ms Gillard has repeatedly and strenuously denied that she had any knowledge of what the association was going to be used for, and has also denied receiving any benefit. She has declined to provide further comment about her role at the time and referred the newspaper to her previous strong denials of wrongdoing.

In a 1997 memo, released under Freedom of Information last month, the WA police fraud squad's then Detective Sergeant David McAlpine described the alleged scam and how it involved soliciting large cheque payments from major construction companies.

Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt allegedly told the companies to make the payments to fund measures to improve safety for workers on construction sites. The police file shows that payments totalling more than $400,000 went through bank accounts tied to the AWU Workplace Reform Association.

However, police and the AWU found that the promised safety measures did not occur and the cash was siphoned off for the use of Mr Wilson, who had moved from WA to become the AWU's Victoria head, and his ally Mr Blewitt. The AWU's furious federal leadership, which did not authorise the new entity and knew nothing of its formation, made numerous formal complaints to police in Victoria and Western Australia, and launched actions in the Industrial Relations Court in a bid to recover the funds. Robert McClelland, Australia's future attorney-general, was part of the bid to recover the money.

A three-page memo from Sergeant McAlpine to the squad's legal officer, Samantha Tough, stated: "The point of this report is to obtain from you a better sense of direction in regards to charging the two crooks (Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt)."

Ms Tough's file-notes and other documents show she considered fraud, conspiracy and other criminal charges but concluded that police would need the co-operation of a key party, who declined to help. Ms Tough said search warrants should be executed in Victoria.

One of the AWU leadership's confidential letters to the fraud squad stated: "It is very difficult for people within the AWU to come to terms with these issues when they (have) seen other high-profile figures who have been taken to court recently, claiming money belonged to them."

Ms Tough was in agreement and noted: "I should add that the position we find ourselves in is extremely frustrating."

The police running-sheet states that "suspect withdrawals" were made to buy a Melbourne house at the centre of the alleged fraud, in Kerr Street, Fitzroy, in 1993. Mr Blewitt was the legal owner of the house, purchased with allegedly stolen money for the use of Mr Wilson in a transaction handled and part-financed by Slater & Gordon solicitors. The firm waived its conveyancing fees.

Mr Blewitt, 66, has now broken a 17-year silence on the matter in an interview with The Australian in which he has admitted his wrongdoing and pledged to co-operate in new investigations in Victoria and Western Australia. He said he would fully expose the alleged fraud and conduct of others to police and prosecutors in return for an assurance that he would not be prosecuted.

"I knew at the time there were sham transactions. I knew at the time it was wrong. My greatest fear is that I incriminate myself but this has to come out now," Mr Blewitt said.

The Fitzroy house became a key part of the police and union investigation involving Mr Wilson, who has previously denied wrongdoing, and Mr Blewitt, who now admits the alleged fraud.

Ian Cambridge, then national head of the AWU (and now a Fair Work commissioner), stated in an affidavit in the Industrial Relations Court in 1996 that he was "unable to understand how Slater and Gordon, who were then acting for the Victoria Branch of the Union, could have permitted the use of funds which were obviously taken from the union, in the purchase of private property of this nature, without seeking and obtaining proper authority from the union".

Asked to respond to Mr Cambridge's concern and the new revelations, Andrew Grech, managing director of the Melbourne-based firm, said: "These matters occurred some 17 years ago. Slater & Gordon is obviously a very different law firm to the small partnership that existed some 17 years ago.

"The people who were acting for the AWU at that time, have long since left the firm. No one who is at Slater and Gordon today has any personal knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this matter. And in any event, we would be restricted in what could be said because of client confidentiality. We are very proud of the firm that now employs more than 1650 staff across more than 80 locations throughout Australia and the UK."

PUSH TO RELAUNCH FRAUD PROBE

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14584414/push-to-relaunch-...

By Gary Adshead, Sean Cowan - The West Australian - August 18

An unremarkable Maylands storage unit could provide new clues to $1 million fraud allegations written off by police but which have frustrated union officials and dogged Prime Minister Julia Gillard during her political career.

Tim Daly, a former State secretary of the Australian Workers Union, can still recall his decision to box up and lock away hundreds of documents in the late 1990s knowing that the stench of the financial dealings would one day return.

Two AWU executives, Ralph Blewitt and Bruce Wilson, were investigated in 1995 and 1996 over allegations made to police and the NSW Industrial Relations Commission that they had channelled up to $1 million into secret WA bank accounts and a bogus union association in Northbridge.

There was also a separate police probe into claims that money from an AWU members' fatal accident and death fund was used to buy two holiday units in Kalbarri.

No charges were ever laid in relation to either case.

At the time of the alleged frauds, Ms Gillard was in a relationship with Mr Wilson and acting as Slater and Gordon's lawyer for the AWU, but she has repeatedly denied any involvement or knowledge of Mr Wilson's conduct which police investigated.

Earlier this month, the old allegations surfaced again when Mr Blewitt, a former State secretary of the AWU in Perth, said he would reveal everything he knew in return for immunity from prosecution.

Mr Wilson, who was also the union's WA secretary before moving to Melbourne, has never spoken publicly about the investigations.

But in the mid-1990s, Mr Daly became the union's boss in WA and pushed hard for Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt to be prosecuted over claims fake entities were used to receive huge sums of cash from construction companies in the name of workplace training and reform.

"I'm still very frustrated by the outcome of the whole thing," Mr Daly said.

He said nothing he saw in the documents in storage had Ms Gillard's name on it. Ms Gillard was advising Mr Wilson and the AWU when the alleged fraud was taking place.

Newspaper archives show Ms Gillard travelled with Mr Wilson to Boulder in 1992 to allay members' concerns about a decision to transfer the management of a Goldfields death fund to the union's head office in Perth.

Ms Gillard addressed members in Boulder Town Hall to explain why it should happen.

Three years later, police were asked to investigate the use of $145,000 from the fund by Mr Blewitt to buy two Kalbarri units in the AWU's name.

Mr Daly said authorities should take up Mr Blewitt on his offer.

"I don't want to see the current government damaged in any way," Mr Daly said.

The Prime Minister's office referred _The Weekend West _ to previous statements she has made.

She has described herself as "young and naïve" at the time of her relationship with Mr Wilson, which she ended, and could not be held responsible for anything illegal he may have done.
Mr Wilson is believed to be living in NSW and could not be contacted.

NO COMMENT BY JULIA GILLARD AFTER A PARTNER AT SLATER AND GORDON SAID SHE HAD TO RESIGN AFTER INTERNAL PROBE

No comment from law firm resignation: PM - AAP - August 19

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14591175/no-comment-on-law...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is refusing to discuss accusations regarding her resignation from a prominent law firm in 1995, saying it wouldn't stop the "malicious and motivated" commentary.

News Limited is reporting Ms Gillard left her job as a partner at Slater & Gordon as a direct result of a secret internal probe into controversial work she had done for her then boyfriend, a union boss accused of corruption.

The new claims have been made by a former partner at the firm, Nick Styant-Browne.

The prime minister says she refuses to dignify the "scurrilous" attack with a response.

"We are talking about matters 17 year ago which have been dealt on the public record," Ms Gillard told Sky News on Sunday.

"I am not going to get into a circumstance when we've got people blogging malicious nonsense and we're having some of this penetrate into the media.

"This is just nonsense and a distraction from the important work I've got to do as prime minister.

"I did nothing wrong. If you've got an allegation that I did something wrong then put it."

Ms Gillard said she had continuing good relationships with Slater & Gordon, and nothing about the allegations was relevant to her conduct as prime minister.

Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne said there were very serious questions about the prime minister's integrity and she should make a personal explanation to parliament.

Files held by Slater & Gordon should also be released detailing the circumstances surrounding Ms Gillard's resignation.

"In the interest of clearing the prime minister's name, those files should be released," he told Sky News.

But Ms Gillard said she wouldn't make any comment because it would only feed the fire.

"The people who are dealing with this online in their malicious and motivated way would not stop no matter what explanation I gave," she said.

"That is why there is no point in flogging through all the details of this, because the people who are pursuing this malicious campaign will continue to do it. They are not at all interested in the truth."

Defence Minister Stephen Smith played down the issue.

"If people are asking questions about that they should make an allegation about her conduct," he told Network Ten.

"What does something that occurred 17 years ago, with respect to a law firm she was working with that she now has an ongoing good relationship (with), have to do with the big issues of running the economy and running our national security interests?"

And this ABC report, it's a must read - August 19

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/14591456/gillard-dismisses-ma...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed a report in The Australian newspaper which raises claims about why she quit her job with law firm Slater and Gordon.

The report says Ms Gillard resigned as a partner with Slater and Gordon as a direct result of an internal probe into work she had done for a former boyfriend.

The newspaper's editor at large, Paul Kelly, raised the story with Ms Gillard on Sky News, but did not put any allegations to her.

The Prime Minister responded by describing the story as "malicious nonsense" and challenged Mr Kelly to come up with an allegation of any wrongdoing on her part.

"I'm not going to get myself into a circumstance where I spend my time dealing with a circumstance 17 years ago when the people who are asking the questions about them are unable to even articulate what it is they say I did wrong," she said.

"This is just nonsense and a distraction from the important work that I have to do as Prime Minister."

Nick Styant-Browne, a former equity partner of Slater and Gordon, told The Australian the firm's probe included a confidential formal interview with Ms Gillard, who was then an industrial lawyer, on September 11, 1995.

He said in the interview, which was "recorded and transcribed", Ms Gillard could not categorically rule out that she had personally benefited from union funds in the renovation of her Melbourne house.

The Australian says the firm's probe revolved around Ms Gillard's work since mid-1992 for the Australian Workers Union, and her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson, the AWU's leader at the time.

Mr Styant-Browne told The Australian:

"She (Ms Gillard) had extensively renovated her own house in Abbotsford. Mr Wilson had assisted in the renovations. She believed she had paid for all the work and materials, and had receipts which she agreed to produce. She was aware someone had sought payment from the AWU for work and materials he had supplied for the house.

"He was mistaken or misinformed. But she could not categorically deny AWU union or Workplace Association monies had been used for any of the work. As at the time of the interview, her relationship with Mr Wilson had recently ended."

Explaining his reasons for speaking out, Mr Styant-Browne told The Australian: "It has recently become clear to me that there is a genuine public interest in this story, which has prompted my statement now".

IT IS TIME FOR A ROYAL COMMISSION, AND WHILE THE PRIME MINISTER IS IN OFFICE - otherwise the integrity of the Office of the Prime Minister continues to be eroded - one cannot ask for immunity or be afforded a trust not afforded to all others

UPDATE: This article by the Herald Sun's Andrew Bolt (former Liberal Party President) does contain a reliable summary and pertinent questions - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/awu-scandal-involving-prime-minister...

excerpts include: "The application Gillard prepared to register the association in 1992 falsely claimed its main purpose was "to achieve safe workplaces".

On March 6, 1992, a public notice to incorporate the association ran in the West Australian under Blewett's name, claiming it was "formed for the purpose of promoting and encouraging workplace reform for workers performing construction and maintenance work"." "This too was false."

and

"But what shames the media is that so many political journalists for years never wanted to ask any questions at all."

and

"Only one journalist, News Limited's Glenn Milne, bothered to cover the allegations in a heavily legalled article headlined "A conman broke my heart", in which Gillard gave her only public explanation.

"I was young and naive. I am by no means the first person to find out that someone close turns out to be different to what you had believed them to be."

Gillard later told biographer Jacqueline Kent: "Over the next two or three days I received phone calls from many of the biggest names in the Canberra press gallery expressing absolute disbelief that such things were said (by Milne).

"Nobody followed up the story. It just died."

and

"No threats were made but every News executive knew the Government was already considering new laws to punish the "hate media".

As in News Ltd.

Milne's column and some of my blog posts were removed. The ABC's Insiders dumped Milne as a panelist. Fairfax forced out Smith."

and

"But the story started to go mainstream only in June when former Labor attorney-general Robert McClelland told Parliament he and Gillard had acted as solicitors for "opposing clients" in the AWU scandal, and he'd been convinced we needed tougher laws against union corruption.

The Australian took a fresh interest in the story, and so did Fairfax's Financial Review, now under a new editor."

and

"Key witnesses also emerged, some thanks to former Builders Laborers Federation organiser Harry Nowicki, who had retired from his successful law practice to write a history of the AWU."

and

"Former Wilson bagman Ralph Blewett flew back from Malaysia to tell The Australian's Hedley Thomas of Gillard and Wilson, offering to reveal more if given legal indemnity.

Former Slater & Gordon partner Nick Styant-Browne last week told Thomas of Gillard's most startling admissions in the 1995 interview, excerpts of which The Australian published yesterday."

and

"How Gillard will come out of this, I cannot tell.

But however bad it gets for her, it's even worse for media."

POST 34 from a blogger summarises why a Royal Commission should happen and quickly so:

"Maybe some of all this can be explained by relationships - and that power and relationships can corrupt. Gillard was part of a major law firm, her partner an AWU leader, she acted for him as a lawyer and spokesperson (Boulder Town Hall, 1992). McClelland was a lawyer pursuing Wilson. Shorten too. Ludwig too. Roxon gets a nod as a lawyer in pursuing the AWU rorts. Shorten and Roxon are together for a while. Emerson and Gillard are together for a while. All these players finish up well connected, Labor powerbrokers and in the highest office in the nation.

Yeah, I agree, a Royal Commission can only clean up the air."

LINKS:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/julia-gillards-ex-boyfriend-br...
DETECTIVES investigating an alleged $400,000 union fraud in the 1990s wanted to prosecute a former boyfriend of Julia Gillard over the matter, it's been reported.

http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillards-ex-boyfriend-bruce-wilson...

http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2012/07/22/julia-gillards-former-lov...
Former radio host Mike Smith has tracked down Bruce Wilson who was the sexual partner of Julia Gillard when she helped him rip of the AWU of over $1 million back in the 1990′s.
On Friday Mike Smith did an interview with Sydney radio host Alan Jones covering the fraud. What became clear to me while listening to the interview, given the amount of new detail, is that Mike Smith is still on the trail of the missing money and Julia Gillard and her involvement. I spoke to Mike Smith today and he confirmed that he is very much still on the case.
Bruce Wilson is the one person who very much holds the key as far as knowledge and evidence of Julia Gillard’s involvement in the fraud in concerned. Now he has been found it may only be a matter of time before he spills the beans on Julia Gillard. Mike Smith talks about it in his interview with Alan Jones.
My first post on the matter which I did last year was titled “Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s criminal history and her hypocrisy with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.” (Click here to read the post)
Below is the interview by Alan Jones with Mike Smith. It starts off with Alan Jones giving a background overview then he gives Mike Smith plenty of air time to say what he knows. And he knows plenty. For those who do not know Alan Jones has the number 1 ranked radio show in Sydney.
The interview is a must listen for every Australian. With unanswered questions in Gillard’s background of involvement in fraud and theft she should never have been allowed to become Prime Minister.

http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2011/08/07/australian-prime-minister...
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s criminal history and her hypocrisy with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Julia Gillard had criminal allegations made against her in 1995 when she was accused of helping her boyfriend steal over $1,000,000 from the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and helping him spend the money on such things as her personal home renovations and dresses.
Julia Gillard has never denied helping him rip off the $1,000,000 plus dollars, what she has done is denied doing it knowingly. Her part was helping set up an account called the “AWU Members Welfare Association No 1 Account” and possibly other accounts that the money was laundered through when she was a lawyer working for Slater and Gordon who were the solicitors representing the Australian Workers Union.
The allegations against Julia Gillard were initially raised in the Victorian Parliament in 1995.
In an interview with Glenn Milne of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph in 2007 Julia Gillard said:
“These matters happened between 12 and 15 years ago,” Ms Gillard told The Sunday Telegraph. “I was young and naive.
“I was in a relationship, which I ended, and obviously it was all very distressing. I am by no means the first person to find out that someone close turns out to be different to what you had believed them to be. It’s an ordinary human error.
“I was obviously hurt when I was later falsely accused publicly of wrong-doing. I didn’t do anything wrong and to have false allegations in the media was distressing.”
The article also says “But she has strenuously denied ever knowing what the association’s bank accounts were used for.” (Click here to read the full article)

http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2011/09/05/has-julia-gillard-blackma...
Has Julia Gillard blackmailed the Media to cover-up her corrupt past? The Fairfax Media and News Corp scandal.

http://www.rightpulse.com/archives/4138
What we know about Gillardgate:
Back in the 1990s Julia Gillard was in a romantic relationship with former AWU official Bruce Wilson,
Bruce Wilson had Julia Gillard set-up a number of bank accounts under the guise of AWU operations,
Julia Gillard was the AWU’s legal counsel,
The bank accounts turned out to be funnelling union money to pay for Bruce Wilson’s personal expenses, around $1 million,
When found out, Bruce Wilson sought legal counsel from Slater and Gordon as represented by Julia Gillard,
Gillard left Slater and Gordon. In 1995 in Victoria’s Parliament it was claimed the reason Gillard left was to work for the AWU to pay back the money involved in Wilson’s scam.
In 2001 in Victoria’s Parliament it was detailed that out of the $1 million stolen, $57,500 went directly to Julia Gillard: $17,500 was spent on clothing at Town Mode and $40,000 spent on renovations to her house in Melbourne.
Gillard has generally denied any suggestion that she did anything wrong, saying that she was ‘young and naïve’ at the time and did not know what was going on.
Last week an affidavit was signed by a former AWU official, interviewed and fact checked by 2UE’s Michael Smith, that substantiates claims of wrong doing and also details that Gillard and Wilson were in a de facto relationship and that AWU bribery and stand-over tactics were used to shut the issue up. It is claimed these tactics included the involvement of a Federal ALP figure, Senator Stephen Conroy…..I think.
This week Julia Gillard and her people have been hurriedly ringing the media trying to get the story closed down, including getting The Australian to pull a Glenn Milne article which detailed the points above. Andrew Bolt has also been muzzled over at the Herald Sun from publishing a similar article – although this article may be published tomorrow, probably electronically. The media have been pulling any article from the web referencing the scandal from 2007.
Michael Smith is still trying to get permission from 2UE to play the full 30 minute interview with his former AWU contact.
I have no idea how true or untrue the details above are and I am not accusing anyone. However, we do know that Gillard was in a relationship with an AWU official (Bruce Wilson) while also acting as the AWU’s legal counsel and that she did set-up the bank accounts under question for Bruce Wilson. Gillard has admitted as much.
My only question: Who was getting and/or reading the bank account statements, Bruce Wilson or Julia Gillard?
UPDATE
Here is the affidavit signed by Bob Kernohan and vetted by 2UE’s Michael Smith which details that Gillard and Wilson shared a home paid for with corrupt AWU money. The declaration is not really ground breaking. It is a case of ‘he said that, who heard that’, mmm…….No silver bullet here.

http://www.maynereport.com/articles/2011/08/29-1202-7942.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard
Gillard's partner since 2006[134] is Tim Mathieson.[135] She has had previous relationships with union officials Michael O'Connor and Bruce Wilson and fellow Federal Labor MP Craig Emerson.[136]

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/fair-is-foul-and-foul-is-fair-201...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/the-skeletons-are-rattling/story-e6f...
JULIA Gillard sacked only one of the ministers who backed Kevin Rudd in February's leadership brawl.
Now her victim, former Attorney-General Robert McClelland, is making her pay a high price.
He's revived a 1990s union scandal that Gillard must have thought she'd buried - one involving her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson, accused of misappropriating $500,000.
This is a story a furious Gillard last year managed to shut down, shouting in private calls to newspaper executives and obtaining the retraction of an entire column in The Australian.
Two journalists - veteran commentator Glenn Milne and Fairfax radio's Michael Smith, a former policeman - even lost their jobs trying to report it.
For at least two months, McClelland has debated what to say about the Wilson case, which has disturbed him.

http://lpickering.net/item/8305
FACEBOOK ADVISED THAT WE RISKED PERMANENT BANNING IF THIS FOLLOWING STORY WAS NOT REMOVED. IT WAS DULY REMOVED BUT RE-POSTED ON PICKERING’S WEB SITE. WE ARE RISKING RE-POSTING THE ARTICLE HERE NOW (without alteration) BECAUSE FURTHER INFORMATION HAS COME TO LIGHT REGARDING MAJOR MEDIA PHONE HACKING THAT IS APROPOS TO, AND A CONTINUANCE OF, THIS ARTICLE.

AWU SCANDAL QUESTIONS LINGER
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/awu-scandal-questions-linge...
THE former union official who has offered to throw new light on 17-year-old allegations of corruption in the Australian Workers Union should be given a hearing, if only to put to rest the rumours and conspiracy theories that mostly populate the internet, spread though the blogosphere and find their way into the twitterverse.
All too often these claims lack evidence, credibility and believability. But yesterday, Hedley Thomas reported that former AWU official Ralph Blewitt, who is linked to a corruption scandal allegedly perpetrated by former Victorian AWU secretary Bruce Wilson -- Prime Minister Julia Gillard's former boyfriend -- wants to reveal what he knows in return for immunity from prosecution.
He will give evidence about the siphoning of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union into an entity that Mr Wilson used to buy a house in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. At the time, Ms Gillard worked as a lawyer with Slater & Gordon, which set up the entity that received the funds.
It is in the union movement's interest that these allegations are resolved. New information about another corruption scandal could not come at a worse time for the union movement. The corruption in the Health Services Union was confirmed by independent investigations which found that former HSU national secretary and now suspended Labor MP Craig Thomson, and also former HSU East secretary Michael Williamson, had misused sUbstantial amounts of union member funds.
Although HSU rorting was reported in 2009, it was not until recently that the government, the ALP and the union movement distanced themselves from Mr Thomson, Mr Williamson and the HSU. Maintaining power in the minority parliament outweighed the need to express a sense of moral outrage or reach a commonsense judgment that questions need to be answered.
It is in this environment, after the government had wedded itself to the corrupt and morally bankrupt HSU for so long, that another union corruption scandal, this one linked to Ms Gillard's former boyfriend, has again surfaced. But rather than simply rehash an old story linked to Ms Gillard -- who has denied any knowledge or wrongdoing -- new information has emerged warranting closer scrutiny and may help to finally resolve this matter. Mr Blewitt should work with police to reopen the investigation, which was shelved without action being taken.
The AWU, under then president Bill Ludwig and then secretary Ian Cambridge, fought to recover the funds. Former attorney-general, Robert McClelland, who was the AWU's lawyer at the time, recently said questions still needed answering and action had to be taken to prevent it happening again. Slater & Gordon must explain how it could allow such an entity to be established and then carry out conveyancing on a property purchased with funds from the union without authority from the union itself.
While we have an open view on this matter and accept the Prime Minister's denial of any knowledge of, or involvement in, this scandal, questions continue to linger about Mr Wilson and Slater & Gordon. It demands a new investigation by legal authorities.
Like Mr Blewitt, others must also come forward to reveal what they know. The AWU should again open up its files and co-operate with authorities. If not, questions about this scandal, which has followed Ms Gillard for more than a decade, will not go away.

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Comments

If Julia Gillard were not a Prime Minister this would not be such a big deal.
However, Julia Gillard is in a very powerful position and this scandal is well to be raised.
With a background like that whose to say what contacts she has today.
Politics a dirty business, we all know this, but Gillard as PM has to be clean and she isn't.

If it were someone other than PM we could accept the 'young and naive'.
It doesn't sit at all well with a PM of our country Australia.
Sjhe should be further scrutinised and rightly judged for these 'associations'.What else is she into today????

Beverly & Neville

I've seen lawyers struck off for much less. Did Slater and Gordon report her conduct to the Law Institute of Victoria? What is the Law Institute of Victoria's response to Gillard's conduct of this matter as a lawyer? Do they agree it is appropriate for a lawyer to claim being "young and naieve" as a defence to negligent conduct whilst practicing as a Partner in a Victorian law firm?

Labor and there Unions, which are the same thing, have been corrupt for decades, you can put a suit on a monkey but it is still a monkey, wake up Australia, we are in urgent need of a Royal Commission into this lot of rabble.

Gillard in 1992 had gone with her boyfriend AWU secretary Bruce Wilson to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in 1992 and at the Town Hall Julia Gillard, a lawyer, spoke to the AWU members and told them it was worthwhile to deposit members funds in a trust fund run by Bruce Wilson.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/julia-gillards-ex-boyfrie...

DETECTIVES investigating an alleged $400,000 union fraud in the 1990s wanted to prosecute a former boyfriend of Julia Gillard over the matter, it's been reported.

The Weekend Australian says internal police documents into a union funds scandal in the 1990s show that detectives wanted to prosecute former Australian Workers' Union boss Bruce Wilson and an associate, Ralph Blewitt, over the affair.

At the time, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who was then working as a lawyer, was in a close relationship with Mr Wilson, the paper said.

Documents from the police probe showed police regarded the duo as "crooks".

It's also reported the documents show senior AWU officials were not happy that the two men escaped criminal charges over the matter.

Ms Gillard has repeatedly denied any knowledge of any wrongdoing.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14584414/push-to-relaunch-...

An unremarkable Maylands storage unit could provide new clues to $1 million fraud allegations written off by police but which have frustrated union officials and dogged Prime Minister Julia Gillard during her political career.

Tim Daly, a former State secretary of the Australian Workers Union, can still recall his decision to box up and lock away hundreds of documents in the late 1990s knowing that the stench of the financial dealings would one day return.

Two AWU executives, Ralph Blewitt and Bruce Wilson, were investigated in 1995 and 1996 over allegations made to police and the NSW Industrial Relations Commission that they had channelled up to $1 million into secret WA bank accounts and a bogus union association in Northbridge.

There was also a separate police probe into claims that money from an AWU members' fatal accident and death fund was used to buy two holiday units in Kalbarri.

No charges were ever laid in relation to either case.

At the time of the alleged frauds, Ms Gillard was in a relationship with Mr Wilson and acting as Slater and Gordon's lawyer for the AWU, but she has repeatedly denied any involvement or knowledge of Mr Wilson's conduct which police investigated.

Earlier this month, the old allegations surfaced again when Mr Blewitt, a former State secretary of the AWU in Perth, said he would reveal everything he knew in return for immunity from prosecution.

Mr Wilson, who was also the union's WA secretary before moving to Melbourne, has never spoken publicly about the investigations.

But in the mid-1990s, Mr Daly became the union's boss in WA and pushed hard for Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt to be prosecuted over claims fake entities were used to receive huge sums of cash from construction companies in the name of workplace training and reform.

"I'm still very frustrated by the outcome of the whole thing," Mr Daly said.

He said nothing he saw in the documents in storage had Ms Gillard's name on it. Ms Gillard was advising Mr Wilson and the AWU when the alleged fraud was taking place.

Newspaper archives show Ms Gillard travelled with Mr Wilson to Boulder in 1992 to allay members' concerns about a decision to transfer the management of a Goldfields death fund to the union's head office in Perth.

Ms Gillard addressed members in Boulder Town Hall to explain why it should happen.

Three years later, police were asked to investigate the use of $145,000 from the fund by Mr Blewitt to buy two Kalbarri units in the AWU's name.

Mr Daly said authorities should take up Mr Blewitt on his offer.

"I don't want to see the current government damaged in any way," Mr Daly said.

The Prime Minister's office referred _The Weekend West _ to previous statements she has made.

She has described herself as "young and naïve" at the time of her relationship with Mr Wilson, which she ended, and could not be held responsible for anything illegal he may have done.
Mr Wilson is believed to be living in NSW and could not be contacted.

According to The Australian story Julia Gillard lost her job as a lawyer and partner in law firm Slater and Gordon after a secret internal probe which has been confirmed by a former Slater and Gordon partner:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/revealed-julia-gilla...

http://afr.com/p/national/dumped_says_labor_soft_on_corrupt_lUhqJfL80HS4...

Dumped attorney-general Robert McClelland says the Labor Party has not gone far enough in cracking down on corruption in the union movement, citing examples going back to the 1990s connected to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Mr McClelland, a Kevin Rudd supporter who was demoted from cabinet by Ms Gillard late last year, made a thinly veiled reference to a case involving Ms Gillard and her former partner, Bruce Wilson, a former official of the Australian Workers Union. The former attorney-general spoke in Parliament yesterday during debate over the government’s legislative response to the Health Services Union scandal.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8520673/conroy-backs-pm-against-libe...

The allegations can only be removed when an Inquiry takes place and questions that linger are answered, like would be expected of anyone else (who is not Prime Minister)

Her attack on social and citizen media was abominable and pathetic, if it wasn't for citizen media we'd be screwed

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/awu-scandal-involving-prime-minister...

THE case against Julia Gillard in the AWU scandal is growing. But the case against the media is already damning.

Much remains unclear about what Gillard did, and why, as a solicitor for her boyfriend, Australian Workers Union secretary Bruce Wilson, and his bagman, Ralph Blewett, in the mid-1990s.

At the very least, she faces troubling questions about her judgment and integrity, particularly over her involvement in registering the AWU Workplace Reform Association.

The application Gillard prepared to register the association in 1992 falsely claimed its main purpose was "to achieve safe workplaces".

On March 6, 1992, a public notice to incorporate the association ran in the West Australian under Blewett's name, claiming it was "formed for the purpose of promoting and encouraging workplace reform for workers performing construction and maintenance work".

This, too, was false,

Maybe some of all this can be explained by relationships - and that power and relationships can corrupt. Gillard was part of a major law firm, her partner an AWU leader, she acted for him as a lawyer and spokesperson (Boulder Town Hall, 1992). McClelland was a lawyer pursuing Wilson. Shorten too. Ludwig too. Roxon gets a nod as a lawyer in pursuing the AWU rorts. Shorten and Roxon are together for a while. Emerson and Gillard are together for a while. All these players finish up well connected, Labor powerbrokers and in the highest office in the nation.

Yeah, I agree, a Royal Commission can only clean up the air.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/nicola-roxon-worked-...

FEDERAL Attorney-General Nicola Roxon did sensitive legal work as a solicitor for the Australian Workers Union during a formal probe that followed a criminal investigation and the acrimonious departure of Julia Gillard from Slater & Gordon.

However, while Ms Roxon criticised reporting of the Prime Minister's conduct on Tuesday, and claimed that there were Liberal Party connections behind the reports, she failed to reveal her own work on AWU matters.

Legal correspondence obtained by The Australian shows that Ms Roxon, as a solicitor for Maurice Blackburn & Co, a Melbourne law firm, worked on the AWU's legal files after Ms Gillard's departure from Slater & Gordon.

Ms Gillard left the firm after an internal probe by the partnership had considered terminating her for not having observed her "duties of utmost good faith to (her) partners" during her work for the AWU.

The controversy, amid police investigations into the alleged siphoning of hundreds of thousands of dollars by Ms Gillard's then boyfriend and client, AWU boss Bruce Wilson, led to the union's legal work being transferred to Maurice Blackburn.

Mr Wilson used an entity, the AWU Workplace Reform Association that Ms Gillard had set up for him, to allegedly misappropriate the funds. Ms Gillard described it during the internal probe at the time as a "slush fund" to assist in the re-election of union officials. She did not open a file for the work she did on the association, and neither the AWU nor her firm were aware of it until serious allegations were raised in 1995. Ms Gillard has repeatedly and strenuously denied that she did anything wrong. Her office did not respond to questions.

After the alleged fraud was exposed, the matters surrounding the union's finances became the subject of an investigation by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

As a solicitor for the AWU Ms Roxon was directly involved in the handover of union documents for the investigation, as well as advising the then national union head, Terry Muscat. One of her legal letters to the commission's then industrial registrar describes a 1998 conference at which "we identified outstanding documents which needed to be provided to your office for the purposes of completing your investigation".

Ms Roxon's letter sought from the commission an opportunity to make a special case to the registrar "on the questions of breach, mitigation, consequences and the public or private nature of any final determinations, prior to any determination being made by the registrar in this matter".

Ms Roxon declined to answer questions but issued a statement that said she was "involved, to various degrees, in much of the work the (AWU) referred to Maurice Blackburn including unfair dismissals, discrimination cases, coverage matters and many general industrial disputes".

"I have no recollection of any of that work involving Ms Gillard. I have no recollection of ever meeting Mr Wilson," she said. "As I left Maurice Blackburn upon my election nearly 14 years ago, I would have to ask to check archived files in order to answer any more detailed questions, as well as address any issues of legal professional privilege."

The Australian asked Ms Roxon whether as Australia's first law officer she should have disclosed her role in the matters at the time she was criticising media reporting of Ms Gillard's conduct in the AWU scandal. Ms Roxon, during her media conference on Tuesday, said that "a range of allegations were raised each and every time that Ms Gillard has put up her hand, whether it was running for Senate preselection, whether it was running for the preselection in Lalor, whether it was running - as we see now, being the Prime Minister. Each and every time they have not come to anything".

Ms Roxon added that "we expect of journalists and we expect of public debate there to be some standard which is adhered to, and part of that standard is using the professional investigative skills that journalists have to be able to run a credibility ruler over a whole range of allegations that are made". Editor-in-chief of The Australian Chris Mitchell said: "Ms Roxon's behaviour on Tuesday in her press conference criticism of the media showed only that many in the media have much higher ethical standards than do some politicians."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-faces-ren...

JULIA Gillard has fended off questions about why she did not speak to police about an alleged fraud linked to her former boyfriend, Bruce Wilson.

The Prime Minister was tackled in parliament today on the matter, and her assertion in the chamber yesterday that “anybody who has an allegation of dishonest conduct should take it to the appropriate authority to be dealt with”.

Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop asked Ms Gillard that as a practising lawyer registered in Victoria in the 1990s, bound by professional conduct and practising rules, “why didn't she inform the appropriate authority of Mr Wilson's fraud when she became aware of it?”.

Ms Gillard said that “the appropriate authorities were engaged in this matter”, but did not say why she had not contacted police.

The Prime Minister was a lawyer at Slater & Gordon when she formed a legal entity for Mr Wilson, an Australian Workers' Union official, that was purportedly for the purpose of achieving safe workplaces.

But during an internal investigation three years later by the partners of her law firm, Slater & Gordon, following serious allegations that the entity had been used by Mr Wilson to misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars, Ms Gillard admitted it was a “slush fund” to raise cash for the re-election of union officials.

She did not create an internal file for the work, telling partners she had not intended to charge for the work.

Ms Gillard left Slater & Gordon soon after, amid the partnership's “very serious view” of her conduct.

In August, she fronted the media on the issue, claiming she was the victim of a “smear campaign” driven by “misogynists and nut jobs” on the internet.

(The Royal Commission has to happen, the whole Office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Cabinet, the AWU and the ALP remain tainted otherwise and we deserve better than this - the files with Slater and Gordon should be released to a Royal Commission, Ralph Blewitt and Bruce Wilson must provide testimony, and no files or documents held back, and what no-one has said so far that should be a must, is that the meeting that took place at Boulder Town Hall (WA) in 1992 allegedy with Julia Gillard and Bruce Wilson speaking to AWU members about their funds - members benefits - into what is now described as a 'slush fund' this is key and a transcript of that meeting and the speeches may need to be provided)

This mess needs a Royal Commission for everyones sake and till it happens the Office of the Prime Minister is included in the tainting and aspersions.

It is not "the internet nutjobs" who are the problem, the questions and the sea of aspersions are the problems and they have a right to be asked and the example from the highest office in the nation is now the poorest and actually it is reprehensible.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tussle-over-mystery-fil...

Tussle over mystery file on AWU slush fund

by: Hedley Thomas
From:The Australian
October 13, 201212:00AM

A SENSITIVE file at the heart of a union fraud scandal that caused top partners in the legal firm of Slater & Gordon to lose trust and confidence in their colleague, Julia Gillard, is the subject of a new tug-of-war over whether its contents can ever be disclosed -- if they can even be found.

The file's documents would relate to the legal advice, notes and correspondence produced by Ms Gillard in her role, as a solicitor at the firm, in the 1992 establishment of the controversial Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.

This "slush fund", as Ms Gillard has since termed it, was used by her then boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson, and his friend, union bagman Ralph Blewitt, to allegedly defraud companies of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About $100,000 from the slush fund went towards the purchase in Mr Blewitt's name of a fashionable Melbourne terrace house in Fitzroy in which Mr Wilson lived. Slater & Gordon handled the conveyancing and helped to manage a loan to Mr Blewitt to complete the purchase. The firm has denied it knew at the time that union funds were improperly used. Ms Gillard, who has repeatedly and strenuously denied any wrongdoing, said in an impromptu media conference in August that she "provided advice, as the association was established. I then knew absolutely nothing about its workings until allegations about its workings became the subject of discussion within the AWU and then more broadly."

The Weekend Australian can reveal that Mr Blewitt, who was Ms Gillard's client at the time and the person authorised to apply to incorporate the association in Western Australia, has been unable to inspect or obtain the file from Slater & Gordon. The firm has released to Mr Blewitt a separate file for the conveyancing in the Fitzroy property purchase.

Mr Blewitt's lawyers have made several requests to the firm seeking the controversial file. Slater & Gordon has asked one of Australia's most prestigious law firms, Arnold Bloch Leibler, to manage the matter.

That firm's senior partner, Leon Zwier, said last month: "Our client can only provide documents which are the property of Mr Blewett (sic). It is not sufficient to claim that any documents we hold concerning (the association) belong to your client simply because he was at some point an office holder of the association."

But last night Slater & Gordon head Andrew Grech told The Weekend Australian: "We have undertaken a thorough search through our archives and failed to locate a 'file' in relation to the AWU Workplace Reform Association. In the event that Mr Blewitt or his lawyers are able to provide us with information which enables us to establish that there are in fact such a file or documentary records to which he is entitled, we will of course, use our best endeavours to assist him in obtaining those documents from third parties, if they exist . . . Any suggestion that we are withholding information from former clients to protect the Office of the Prime Minister is both highly defamatory and demonstrably wrong." He said the firm had provided what information and documents it could "directly to the former clients who have requested it and we will continue to do so".

Mr Blewitt has told The Australian he was involved in fraud and now wants immunity from prosecution before he talks to the authorities. However, Mr Wilson has declined to discuss the matters and is understood to be concerned about being prosecuted.

A retired Melbourne lawyer and union historian who is helping Mr Blewitt piece together the history, Harry Nowicki, said yesterday that as the slush fund was used to perpetrate allegedly criminal conduct, "the legal file underpinning it is important evidence and must be produced".

"This file is very important to establish the purpose and bona fides of the association and whether it was legitimate about workplace reform," he said.

The file's existence was a particularly sensitive matter for Slater & Gordon in 1995 as Ms Gillard neither disclosed to her partners the work that she had done to establish the "slush fund", nor opened a file on the firm's system.

After the partners became aware of the file and the circumstances surrounding it, Ms Gillard's relationship with the partners "fractured, and trust and confidence evaporated", according to a statement by senior partner Peter Gordon.

Ms Gillard abruptly left the firm amid an internal probe and after a September, 1995 interview in which Mr Gordon had questioned her closely about her role, the purchase of the house for Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt, renovations to her own house, and the establishment of the slush fund.

The association, which was formally registered by the WA government, purported to be dedicated to promoting workplace safety. However, Ms Gillard confirmed to Mr Gordon in the interview that it was a slush fund for the election of union officials. A spokesman for the Prime Minister again declined to answer questions from The Weekend Australian yesterday.