Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s office has rejected an apology from the trade union royal commission for its decision to release documents clearing him of wrongdoing after 8:00pm on a Friday night.
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The solicitor assisting the Royal Commission, James Beaton, has Monday responded to a terse “please explain” from Shorten’s lawyer over an end of the week dump of information from its top counsel, Jeremy Stoljar SC.
“These actions say everything about how political this royal commission is”.
While he does not call for charges against Mr Shorten, Mr Stoljar’s submission acknowledges Mr Shorten’s role as then Victorian AWU secretary in initial discussions over the idea of Thiess John Holland making payments to the union.
“I stand by my record representing workers”, he said.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said on Friday that the royal commission had been politically motivated, “set up by the Liberal Party to throw mud and smear its political opponents”.
Cesar Melhem is facing potential charges of union corruption but the Victorian MP says he is innocent of all allegations.
He took the stand in October and defended a 2010 agreement with contractor Cleanevent that paid the AWU $25,000 a year and saved the company $1.5 million in wages.
“If something is coming out at eight o’clock at night, I’m not going to speculate, but it does speak for itself”, Mr Shorten told reporters in Perth.
The submission said criminal charges should be considered against Mr Melhem over alleged corrupt and secret commissions in deals with employers.
“The elaborate scheme which was implemented to disguise the payment as payments for services, and to hide the arrangement from the workers, supports the view that the payment was “corrupt” according to ordinary standards of conduct”.
Mr Stoljar said an arrangement between civil construction company, Winslow Constructors and the AWU resulted in false invoicing, inflation of union membership numbers and the company obtaining favourable treatment from the union in relation to at least one of Winslow’s competitors.
Following criticism over the timing of the statement, the commission on Saturday said it had not meant to show any “disrespect” to Mr Shorten.
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‘I don’t think anyone is asking him to be a commentator, we’re asking him to be a leader, ‘ he said.
