John Smith wrote on Aug 24^th, 2012 at 8:06am:

The PM to lose her position. I forgot, god knows why, that I need to leave little room for the slow.

John Smith wrote on Aug 24^th, 2012 at 8:41am:

your comprehension levels are poor at best.

philperth2010 wrote on Aug 24^th, 2012 at 7:58am:


Hello Phil,

News Ltd has not lied to the public, as you put it.

They posted an apology due to a small error. Instead of referring to a "slush fund", which Ms Gillard
said in her own words, they called it a "trust fund". That is all.

Lynn

Mr Bolt has a number of stories on this AWU matter on his blog today.

Lynn

Gist wrote on Aug 24^th, 2012 at 12:00pm:


Your playing very nicely with our new bigot nanna Gist, I haven't been able to reply without profanities so have not attempted it.

Do you think it's Karnal?

I do, his been a bit lonely since Matty left

Dsmithy70 wrote on Aug 24^th, 2012 at 12:06pm:


I haven't been on here much today at all so I haven't had a chance to see much of Lynn's donations. But yes, they do seem to have that funky foot odour about them. From the little I've seen I wondered if Lynn is or has ever been married to matty.

Have you Lynn?

Poor Karnal has been looking for someone to stand behind since matty's departure.

How many weeks does Gillard have?

Did Gillard see this cheque?

This cheque, drawn on accounts attached to the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association which Julia Gillard helped to register, was sent to Slater & Gordon for the purchase of a private house for Ralph Blewett, bag man for Gillard’s then boyfriend, Bruce Wilson.

Gillard was at the auction and knew the house was for Blewett and that her boyfriend would live in it.

She later told partners of her law firm she’d known the association was actually a ”slush fund”, ostensibly for her boyfriend’s re-election. In that interview she talked of such slush funds being needed to fight elections that “can cost $10,000, $20,000” .

So if Gillard had seen this cheque arrive at Slater & Gordon, and had noted it was from accounts attached to the slush fund she’d helped to set up, she might well have wondered about the huge amount and about it being used to pay for a house, not an election. If she had seen it. I make no allegation.

If anyone else at Slater & Gordon had seen it, you might think they’d have wondered why a cheque from the AWU or an association seemingly connected to it was being used to pay for a private house.

Some background from a news report soon after the scandal broke:

Between 1992 and 1995, about $370,000 flowed through two Perth-based accounts - operated in the name of the “AWU Workplace Reform Association Inc” - which, until last month, had never been heard of in the AWU’s national offices in Sydney.


All the money came from the big construction group Thiess Contractors, which says the payments were legitimate, arising from a tripartite agreement between it, the AWU and the West Australian Government.


Exactly where all the money ended up is far from clear....

Several other cheques totalling about $35,000 were made out in 1993 to a now ex-AWU official, Mr Ralph Blewitt, and, once, about $67,000 went to the trust account of the high-profile Melbourne law firm Slater and Gordon… It coincides with the purchase of a house in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in Mr Blewitt’s name.

A cheque made out to the “Slater and Gordon Trust Account” was dated five days before the firm arranged settlement on the $230,000 property.

Other records show Mr Wilson later lived in the Fitzroy house ...

This transaction astonished then AWU national secretary Ian Cambridge, now a Fair Work Australia commissioner. Here is a passage from his affidavit - a document Cambridge this week said he stood by:




I know Gillard says she will not be answering any more questions. But these are some I believe do need answers:


- Did Gillard see this cheque, and, if so, when?

- Did she note the source of the funds?

- What steps did she then take to alert the AWU, police, Slater & Gordon or regulatory authorities?

- If none, why not?

- If Gillard did not see this cheque, who in Slater & Gordon did?

- Did they note the source of the funds?

- What steps did they then take to alert the AWU, police or regulatory authorities?



UPDATE

Phillip Coorey in the Fairfax press may be wrong, of course, but...:


The Fitzroy house was bought in Mr Blewitt’s name, even though he did not have the assets to finance the purchase, and it was Mr Wilson who lived in it. Ms Gillard did the conveyancing work.


http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/did_g...