Billy Short-Term may yet follow Gillard into the box for a chat at the RC into union corruption - what a corker! This guy will NEVER be PM. For all the lefties calling for a federal ICAC - I say BRING IT ON!!! #auspol #BSWNBPM #UnionCorruption #sameoldlabor #springst -BILL Shorten oversaw an agreement whereby a mushroom company paid $4000 a month to his branch of the Australian Workers Union for training that was never delivered. The Opposition Leader, Victorian secretary of the AWU until the 2007 federal election campaign, was named yesterday at the royal commission investigating trade union governance as someone who ultimately approved the union’s agreements and helped drive employer contributions to his successor’s slush fund after he was elected. Under Mr Shorten, the AWU negotiated a deal with Australia’s biggest mushroom farm, Chiquita Mushrooms (now MushroomExchange), in which it gave $4000 a month from September 2003 to February 2004 for “paid education leave”. AWU Victorian assistant secretary Frank Leo said he advised Mr Shorten about the deal when it was reached, the payments flowing into general revenue for unspecified training. Chiquita’s former general manager, Stephen Little, said the payments were intended to ease union concerns about the company’s hiring of new casual employees reluctant to join the union. “Our intention was to minimise production disruption.” Mr Little said he thought the money would end up being used for training, but remembered only a single two-hour seminar. The company stopped paying the union’s invoices after six months, and Mr Leo said Mr Shorten would have been the only person authorised to write off the fees due. Most of the hearing focused on the Industry 2020 slush fund established by Mr Shorten’s successor, Cesar Melhem, now a state Labor MP. Mr Melhem told the commission he set up the fund with help from Maurice Blackburn to support his re-election, back officials standing in other unions and political purposes. Asked by counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar SC, if the fund was a personal “fiefdom” to support factional allies, Mr Melhem described it as “a vehicle to assist like-minded individuals”. A note of a discussion Mr Melhem had with Maurice Blackburn suggests the fund contributed $100,000 to candidates standing in Health Services Union elections before it was wound up. The HSU had donated to Industry 2020 by purchasing tickets for its fundraising events. Its first major fundraiser was a lunch in August 2008, when Julia Gillard was the main speaker and employers paid $5000 for a table or $550 a head. A week before the lunch, Mr Shorten’s personal assistant sent a consultant an invitation to the fundraiser — “as discussed with Bill” — before sending confirmation of the consultant’s payment to Mr Melhem with the note: “Your blood money.” Mr Melhem said the reference to blood money was “a bad joke”. The hearing continues.- theaustralian.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/bill-shorten-led-awu-training-fund/story-fn59noo3-1227059540622
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 21:47:03 +0000
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