ALP goes AWOL over AWU funds as Shorten refuses to answer
The Australian’s Greg Brown asks Labor leader Bill Shorten a question in Canberra, yesterday:
Brown: Did you authorise a $25,000 donation of union money to your 2007 election campaign when you were secretary of the AWU?
Shorten: Listen, this government is absolutely keen to chuck all of the rubbish it can at me because they are desperate to distract from their own matters.
He certainly had the power to hand that cash over to his own election campaign. A motion carried at a meeting of the Australian Workers Union national executive, November 23, 2006:
Moved M. Eagles, seconded C. Melhem: “The request for donations and assistance from candidates for the next federal election be left in the hands of the national secretary.”
The Australian’s reporter tries again in Canberra, yesterday:
Brown: But did you authorise —
Shorten: I am going to answer your question.
The Opposition Leader has a lot to answer for when it comes to his time in the AWU. Brad Norington in The Australian, yesterday:
Labor’s federal leader has been referred for investigation over a $100,000 donation of union funds he made to GetUp! as AWU national secretary … His apparent authorising of union spending on his own campaign, and those of at least two other Labor candidates, could also be drawn into the ROC (Registered Organisations Commission) investigation.
Shorten didn’t answer our question, by the way. Canberra, yesterday:
Shorten: I’m not getting into that game. I’m proud of my record and that’s how it stands.
Brown: What was the criteria you gave to donate to your own campaign?
Shorten: I will refer to my previous answer …
The criteria are not in the union rule book. And it certainly doesn’t say the national secretary can give out money to whomever he pleases … The AWU rules:
A loan, grant or donation must not be made by the union … unless the national executive of the union has … approved the making of the loan, grant or donation.
Shorten continues with his non-answer. Canberra, yesterday:
Brown: Was that an inappropriate use of union funds?
Shorten: Oh, it’s been covered — I got a thousand questions on this.
Rest assured we won’t be giving up that easily. Norington in The Australian, yesterday:
The Australian asked Mr Shorten’s office whether he recalled authorising the $25,000 AWU donation, what criteria he used and whether there was a precedent. Mr Shorten did not respond.
And former British shadow chancellor Ed Balls spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra, yesterday:
It’s very good to put British politics aside and come to the stability and tranquillity of Australian politics.
We partly have Balls’s mate to thank for the lack of stability. National Press Club website, yesterday:
The GFC 10 years on: The Rt Hon Ed Balls and the Hon Wayne Swan MP.
Kevin Rudd speaks about losing power in 2010. The Killing Season, ABC, June 16, 2014:
Sarah Ferguson: What would you say to him (Wayne Swan) if you saw him?
Rudd: That betrayal’s pretty tough, mate.