Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed it could be said that Victoria is the slush fund capital of Australia. In 2006 the National Union of Workers' slush fund known as IR 21 paid $10,762 to the campaign of Labor's Martin Pakula, a former NUW official. On 11 April 2013 it made a $1,500 donation to Mr Pakula's Lyndhurst SEC. When questioned about these shady transactions Mr Pakula claimed:

Any donations made to me by IR 21 or anyone else were properly disclosed …

The problem is that the $3,400 donation made to his campaign on 9 August 2006 was not in fact disclosed. The submissions of counsel assisting the royal commission noted that there is no explanation as to why this amount was not recorded in the donations part of the ledger. This is the legacy that we need to clean up. (Time expired)