Bill Shorten told me to shut up about dealings of Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, former AWU boss Robert Kernohan says

BILL Shorten told a union official not to blow the whistle on dealings by the union boss ex-boyfriend of Julia Gillard, corruption inquiry hears.

LABOR leader Bill Shorten told a senior union official not to blow the whistle on dodgy dealings by the union boss ex-boyfriend of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a union corruption inquiry has heard.

Former AWU Victorian branch president Robert Kernohan told the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption yesterday that he was “bloody horrified” by what he had discovered about union figure Bruce Wilson in 1996.

SHORTEN ‘KNEW OF WILSON’S DODGY DEALINGS’

But when Mr Kernohan, who claimed he eventually received bullets in the mail and was bashed in the street for talking about the “scandal”, initially raised the alarm with then-AWU official Mr Shorten, he was allegedly told: “Bob think of your future. There’s been a payout, we are just all moving on.”

After the fraud was discovered Mr Wilson and self-confessed bagman Ralph Blewitt allegedly ­received redundancy payments from a fund earmarked for bereavement payments to the families of dead members, the inquiry heard.

Mr Kernohan said he asked the future Labor leader: “What, sweep it under the carpet like everyone else seems to have?”

Mr Kernohan claims that Mr Shorten put his hand on his shoulder and said: “If you pursue this, a lot of good people will get hurt and you will be on your own. Look Bob, you’ve been lined up to take a safe Labor seat of Melton in the Victorian parliament.”

Mr Kernohan said two AWU ­officials heard the exchange in the corridor and “looked stunned”. “I walked away shaking my head,” he said. “I knew right then when I walked away that I’m not going into the Victorian parliament because it would have that caveat on it.”

A spokesman for Mr Shorten said: “As Mr Shorten has said ­repeatedly, these claims are completely untrue.”

A young Julia Gillard and Bruce Wilson / Picture: Supplied

The commission has heard evidence that money from a slush fund called the AWU Members Welfare Association was used by Mr Wilson to pay for building projects, including renovations to Ms Gillard’s house in Fitzroy, in the early-1990s.

Mr Kernohan said he had ­received a $6500 cheque from the fund to help with election expenses that was handed over by Mr Wilson in a meeting that took no more than 30 seconds. He had thought nothing of it until he was served with a subpoena to attend the Federal Court in Sydney as a defendant in a legal action launched by the AWU.

“It laid bare the whole sorry saga of the fraud perpetuated by Wilson. I was just horrified and couldn’t ­believe it,” he said before eventually breaking down in tears.

Mr Kernohan said he blew the whistle because it was a “cover-up of a scandal” that went to “all the way to the highest office in the land”.

But he paid a high price.

He received bullets in the mail along with letters saying “we know where you live” and was physically attacked by three men in the street after he contacted the media, with one assailant telling him: “Stop talking to the press you grub.”

WITNESS’ BLAST FOR EX-PM’S CABINET MEMBERS

Former AWU official Bruce Wilson / Picture: Sam Mooy

MEMBERS of Gillard’s “kitchen cabinet” benefited politically as a result of the “scandalous cover-up” of the alleged AWU slush fund affair, a witness claimed outside yesterday’s commission hearings.

After giving explosive evidence inside the union inquiry, Robert Kernohan told reporters outside, the affair was “a scandalous cover-up that ­resulted in Nicola Roxon, Bill Shorten, Stephen Conroy ending up in the Gillard cabinet”.

“People have got to ask themselves would that cabinet have been constructed the way it was had this been properly investigated all those years ago and, more importantly, would Julia Gillard have become prime minister?

“Once this matter is properly investigated and recommendations are handed down by this royal commission Bill Shorten will be exposed for what he is — just another key player in the cover-up over all these years.” He also named current AWU secretary Bill Ludwig as the “most powerful ALP figure in this country” and said he was responsible for ­installing Ms Gillard as PM.

Bruce Wilson, Ms Gillard’s former boyfriend, is due to face the royal commission into trade unions today.

WADS OF CASH FOR GILLARD’S RENOVATIONS Matthew Benns

Witness, builder Athol James / Picture: Cameron Richardson

FORMER Prime Minister Julia Gillard was handed wads of cash by her then union boss boyfriend to pay for renovations to her house, a union inquiry heard yesterday.

Builder Athol James told the royal commission into trade unions he saw Bruce Wilson hand over “bundles of cash” to Ms Gillard while he was working on her home in Abbotsford, Melbourne, in 1993.

He claimed he saw Mr Wilson hand over a wad of cash on two occasions — once in the house’s passageway and once in the lounge. “It was a bundle of cash,” said Mr James.

“She gave me a cheque that day or the next day.”

The royal commission is investigating an Australian Workers’ Union slush fund called the Workplace ­Reform Association that Ms Gillard helped set up while she was a lawyer at Slater and Gordon and allegations that union cash was used to pay for work on her home.

Yesterday Mr James said: “She said Bruce Wilson was paying for the work on the site but she would get the money from him and give me her cheque.”

Counsel assisting the Commission Jeremy Stoljar told the commission yesterday that Mr Wilson and his self-confessed ­bagman sidekick-turned-­whistleblower Ralph Blewitt had committed fraud and conspiracy offences which could result in 10 years in jail.

Wayne Hem, a former AWU researcher, told the commission that he had also visited Ms Gillard’s house with AWU official Bill Telikostoglou while painters were working in the kitchen.

Ms Gillard has denied any wrongdoing and has denied the claims.

Mr Hem said: “I saw Bill hand one of the painters an envelope which I assumed contained some money.”

He claims on another occasion, when he asked for account details after Mr Wilson handed him $5000 in cash to take to the bank, “he then wrote ‘Julia Gillard’ on the piece of paper and handed it back to me”.