Instead, the opposition will wait until September 7, to give Mr Heydon time to rule on the ACTU application.
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Unions, which have decried the royal commission as a political witch hunt, on Monday forced Mr Heydon to release all his correspondence relating to the speaking event.
THE Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will seek to have unions royal commissioner Dyson Heydon disqualified from the inquiry, claiming his position was now untenable.
In a statement, ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said that given Tony Abbott would not shut down the commission, the ACTU must take further action.
‘Given Tony Abbott has failed to act the ACTU must now take further action’.
“No-one asked Dyson Heydon to agree to speak to a Liberal Party fundraiser two months after he became royal commissioner”.
Justice Heydon was contacted again in March by the coordinator of the event. He admitted he had “overlooked” the connection to the party.
But Labor insisted its motion was focused on Heydon and did not preclude the government from taking other steps to continue an inquiry into unions.
“This decision provides Commissioner Heydon with the opportunity to respond to any submission made in the royal commission seeking his disqualification before the parliament deals with this matter”, she said.
“All members opposite are doing with this increasingly shrill and hysterical and hypocritical attack on the royal commissioner demonstrates how much they have to hide”.
He said the Rudd government had a tendency “to do non-substantive things”.
The motion would thrust the typically ceremonial position into the public spotlight, marking perhaps the most dramatic political intervention by the office since Sir John Kerr famously dismissed prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975.
But Mr Shorten said he would not block moves to appoint a replacement.
The deferral is a result of negotiations with Senate crossbenchers over the proposed motion, which would have sent a message to the governor general, Peter Cosgrove, asking him to revoke Heydon’s appointment because of his initial acceptance of an invitation to speak at a Liberal party fundraiser.
Mr Abbott said the Labor and union attack was “vicious slander”.
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The $61 million commission – which is due to report in December – has to date referred 26 people to 11 agencies, including prosecutors and the Fair Work Commission.
