progressiveslol wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2012 at 8:14pm:



Hmm just watched about ten minutes of  that.  Looks like tmanipulation of the tape - very poor sound quality almost that 'pay your bills over the phone diatribe. .  Were Hockey, Abetz and Turnbull present when this was taped?  Did they drive there in a Ute?  Was there a pieshop nearby  Was Godwin Grech the producer?  And were Slipper and Ashby cannolding in the sound room?  Do tell - fascinating thread

John Smith wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2012 at 9:24pm:

There was nothing to investigate as there is no complaint from the union to get its money back or to charge the person/s involved. This has been stated many times.

Him coming out early would have been better, but he has stated he is sick of being hounded over it, so wants this out in the open once and forall.

progressiveslol wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2012 at 9:28pm:


I'' m sorry - how is he being hounded?  What has possessed him to come forward now?

gillard?

exposed?

i hope shes had a bikini wax

One thing is for sure, there is rumbling going on in the media about this, where there has been very little in the past.

Gillard is a Nazi - she said less disabled people should recieve welfare and made it harder for disabled people to receive assistance...

Cops wanted Julia Gillard's ex, Bruce Wilson, charged

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."



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

The scandal that now demands answers

We need specific answers, Prime Minister. And can you also explain the circumstances of your leaving Slater & Gordon. The Australian reports:

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…

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 ...

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…

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”.

The story once so successfully suppressed is now going mainstream. The Financial Review:

The Australian Workers Union has admitted that possible corruption by some of its officials in the 1990s forced it to tighten its financial controls and try to retrieve union money.

Is Shorten normally so dismissive of scandals involving the rip-offs of union members? If so, is he fit to be Workplace Relations Minister?

Workplace Relations Minister and former AWU national secretary Bill Shorten described the case as ”ancient stuff”.

“I know at the time my predecessors certainly did take all the material to West Australian and Victorian police and what I understand is those authorities chose not to take the matter any further, not to prosecute,” Mr Shorten told 3AW.

The Australian begs to differ:


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.

While I admire The Australian for pursuing this, I think it should be less dismissive of the blogosphere, without which this would have been yet one more story buried or ignored by the mainstream media:


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.

Some of those in the blogosphere who have kept asking the questions, presenting the evidence, have done so without the financial backing against legal action that mainstream journalists enjoy. They deserve a little more credit for their courage.

Labor says the scandal is old - but refuses to reveal the truth of it:


Lines from the Prime Minister’s “live issues brief” yesterday morning—a pollies’ guide to responding to hot media topics if asked by journalists:

THESE are ancient matters that have never gone anywhere, no matter how many times people have tried to reheat them. Because there’s nothing in them. It is worth remembering that the only reason they are being brought up today is because someone’s promising to reheat them in a deal to avoid criminal charges. The last time they were published the newspaper ended up apologising for making false assertions.
Ancient matters? Robert McClelland, Labor MP, former federal attorney-general and a former lawyer for the AWU quoted in The Weekend Australian, July 14:


LEGAL advice from a torrid union corruption scandal in the 1990s sheds new light on how the solicitor who would become attorney-general, Robert McClelland, and the woman who sacked him, Julia Gillard, were pitted against each other in a costly legal battle over her former boyfriend and on claims that he had misappropriated $400,000 of union money. Mr McClelland further raised the stakes in an interview when he said for the first time that a “third party” might have benefited from the alleged union wrongdoing in the 90s. “I think that any fair-minded person would have to regard the outcome from the 90s as being totally unsatisfactory because, despite protracted litigation, union funds that were misapplied were never returned to benefit members,” Mr McClelland said.

Nothing to see here; move along. Swan yesterday:


JOURNALIST: We’ve seen a former AWU member come out and say that he’s willing to make a statement about events that occurred quite some time ago. Are you concerned that such statements could be detrimental to the Labor Party?

Swan: Not at all. I don’t think there’s anything in this issue that’s been raised in the past; it’s gone nowhere. In fact, it’s been raised in some embarrassing ways by those who raised it in the past. I’m not interested in it and I don’t think it’s got any significant implications whatsoever.

If nothing improper occurred, then where’s the harm in detailing exactly what was done and why? End of story, then.

UPDATE

Reader Ian of Brisbane notes how determined The Age is to avoid smelling the stink:

Search “The Age” website for “Bruce Wilson”. The most recent reference was a 23 June column by Peter Hartcher. Nothing to see here.


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