Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The union movement's disgraceful 'stop the bus' campaign invites the rightful retort 'stop the BS'. The unions involved know the campaign is based on falsehoods and is cynically designed to scare people. In doing so, they distract attention from the important work of the Registered Organisations Commission, which recently recommenced its investigation into serious allegations of the unauthorised use of funds from the Australian Workers Union under its former national secretary Mr Shorten. This brings to an end three years of diversions, vilification and failed legal challenges by the AWU and the ALP in their attempts to prevent the ROC from undertaking this investigation. This follows the decision of the full bench of the Federal Court in November to comprehensively reject the desperate attempts of the AWU to shut down the investigation. For three years the AWU abused its members' money, engaging in frivolous and vexatious lawfare to try and prevent the investigation. Its desperate tactic was to attempt to destroy evidence. Fortunately, a brave whistleblower inside the AWU alerted the ROC to this activity and the ROC was compelled to procure search warrants for the AFP to seize this evidence before it could be destroyed. This was back in October 2017. Since then, the AWU has desperately tried to challenge this process in the courts, but the courts have found that the actions of the ROC and the AFP were all beyond reproach.

Every single claim made by the AWU in relation to the actions and motives of the ROC, the AFP and the government in this matter have been comprehensively rejected by judges. The AWU asserted collusion between the government and the ROC in commencing the investigation. It lost. It asserted collusion between government and the AFP. It lost. It asserted that the ROC had acted at the direction of the government. It lost. It asserted the ROC's decision to investigate was made for an improper political purpose. It lost. It tried to challenge the decision of the Magistrates' Court of Victoria to grant the search warrants. It lost. It asserted that the AFP's decision to execute the search warrants was invalid. It lost. It sought a court order to prevent the ROC from ever looking into these matters at all. It lost. So now, after three years, the ROC can finally receive the documents seized by the AFP that the AWU were so desperate to hide. Whilst ultimately futile, the AWU's doomed and expensive court process did have the effect of delaying the ROC's ability to commence its investigation, it had presumably hoped to frustrate the process for enough time for Labor to win the last election, after which Labor would abolish the ROC. In this endeavour as well, thankfully, it lost.

There is one element of the AWU's tactics which demands closer scrutiny, and that is what the ALP, under Mr Shorten, would have done if it had won in 2019. It's well known that Labor policy was to abolish the ROC, but this would have required legislation which may by no means be assured. It took three years to pass the legislation in the first place. It may have taken just as long to abolish the ROC. To forestall this possibility, the would-be-Shorten government had another dirty trick up its sleeve to frustrate the ROC's investigation. Mr Shorten was planning to immediately defund the ROC. This would not require legislation, but could be done at any time by an incumbent government. By starving it of funds, it would have prevented the ROC from defending itself against the AWU's costly legal challenge and it would have starved it of resources to conduct any investigation once the AWU's legal case inevitably failed. All this is there on page 26 of the ALP's election costings document. Mr Shorten's costings document reveals they would have slashed the funding for these organisations but not provided extra funding to either ASIC or the Fair Work Commission to ensure that appropriate probity might be exercised by registered organisations.

Equally notably, the ALP costings did not include those much needed increases. In other words, there would be no resources anywhere for anyone to continue the work of the ROC. This would have meant all investigations and all legal proceedings underway would need to be dropped. For whose benefit? Only one person's: Mr Shorten. This plan reflects an extraordinarily devious and manipulative attempt. By shutting down an agency that had an investigation on foot in which Mr Shorten was a key person of interest, he would have used his powers to evade any possibility of being held to account. This would have represented the most significant conflict of interest ever for an Australian Prime Minister. It also would have been the most politically corrupt act ever by an Australian Prime Minister.

Shutting down or hobbling law enforcement agencies that may be investigating members of the government is the stuff of Putin's Russia or tin-pot dictatorships. The idea that we would have seen such actions in Australia is truly sinister and worrying. We should all be grateful that it never came to pass. Now, thankfully, the ROC can undertake this much-needed investigation.

Of course the AWU promised it would cooperate. It did not do so. Indeed, a report in The Australian newspaper on 9 March 2019 said:

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton has promised to release all documents once the legal process is completed, even if the union loses the current court case.

Not surprisingly, Mr Walton has not lived up to that promise. I also remind the Senate of Mr Walton's comments at a press conference on 24 October in which he said: 'The AWU has and will always cooperate with any investigation, be it with the Registered Organisations Commission or any other body set out to investigate us. We've cooperated from the beginning.' If so, why the three years of lawfare? The claims, of course, are as brazenly dishonest as Mr Walton's so-called promise to release the evidence.

If Mr Shorten is found to have misappropriated funds from his union then he will be no different to other former union bosses such as Kathy Jackson, Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson, all of whom were found guilty of similar conduct at their union, the HSU, at the same time as Mr Shorten's alleged breaches over at the AWU. The difference between the HSU and the AWU is the new leadership of the HSU co-operated, cleaned up and sought to protect its members. The current leadership of the AWU is continuing to work and conspire with the old leadership of the AWU to ensure these things are not cleaned up and to ensure that these things are not exposed and brought to light.

In the weeks and months to come, Mr Shorten will finally be held to account for any wrongdoing in which he may have engaged. But we should remember the old truism that it's not necessarily the crime but the cover-up that is worse. Just as Mr Shorten should be held to account for any misuse of his position at the AWU for his own benefit, so too should Daniel Walton and anyone else who has misused their position at the AWU to run an equally scandalous cover-up. More importantly, the Australian people need to be reminded that Mr Shorten put forward to the Australian people specific policies designed to ensure the nobbling of an investigation into his personal activities whilst he was secretary of the AWU. That makes him a person unfit for public office. It remains to be seen what is ultimately determined in this matter, but I look forward to the ROC's full investigation.