Shorten connected to ‘fake invoices’, royal commission hears

LABOR leader Bill Shorten has been connected to the paying of false invoices to funnel $100,000 a year in payments to his union, a royal commission has heard.

Bill Shorten

LABOR leader Bill Shorten has been connected to the paying of false invoices to funnel $100,000 a year in payments to the Australian Workers’ Union, a royal commission has heard.

A fake bill for $30,000 worth of advertising is said to be among the bogus invoices paid out by a construction firm.

Julian Rzesniowiecki, the former head of industrial relations on the Thiess-John Holland joint venture that built Melbourne’s EastLink freeway, has told the trade unions royal commission he approved invoices sent in by the AWU in 2005 and 2006 for services that were not delivered or disguised their true purpose.

That purpose, the court heard, was to pay $100,000 a year to the AWU for the three years of the EastLink project, under the terms of an arrangement that would help Thiess-John Holland deliver the freeway project on favourable industrial terms.

Mr Rzesniowiecki said the agreement was established in-principle by his predecessor and Bill Shorten, the then-AWU state secretary, in 2004.

It was then finalised by Mr Rzesniowiecki and Mr Shorten’s successor, Cesar Melhem.

“Mr Melhem and I had a discussion at some point where we settled on the deal,” Mr Rzesniowiecki told the commission.

Mr Rzesniowiecki said the understanding was for Thiess-John Holland to cover the cost of an AWU organiser working on the EastLink project.

However, he said, he and Mr Melhem agreed that the funding of the organiser should “remain a private matter between ourselves and the AWU”.

Originally published as Shorten connected to ‘fake invoices’, royal commission hears