Ralph Blewitt is convincing as the stooge and bagman

AMONG the hundreds of documents placed before Ralph Blewitt, the first witness at the national royal commission into union corruption yesterday, was one recovered from 1993.

An advertisement for a Fitzroy, Melbourne, terrace house that was to be auctioned in February, it states: “This three-storey, three-bedroom Victorian terrace has been totally renovated to maximise space, light and style without compromising its traditional features. Situated close to cosmopolitan Brunswick St, it features a stylish master bedroom with north-facing sun deck, ­superb central bathroom, second double bedroom.”

This is the infamous property at the heart of the Australian Workers Union slush fund scandal. It is of particular interest to the commission’s head, retired High Court judge Dyson Heydon, who appears determined to understand every detail and nuance surrounding the transfer of the terrace house to Blewitt, a self-confessed fraudster who bought it with slush fund money.

The commission heard that while Blewitt was its owner, he knew very little about the property. He did not see it before it was bought nor go to the auction. He did not live in it.

Why would he? He claims the house was purchased for his boss in the AWU, Bruce Wilson, who was accompanied to the auction by his then girlfriend and solicitor, Julia Gillard. Blewitt’s function was to be the fall guy who lent his name to the transaction and provided the cash for the deposit and the balance of the mortgage, which was organised by Slater & Gordon, Gillard’s employer.

Blewitt said he did as he was told. He pulled the necessary cash out of the account of the AWU Workplace Reform Association Inc, the secret slush fund registered in Western Australia on Gillard’s legal advice after a meeting he had with her and her then boss at the law firm, Bernard Murphy.

Blewitt told the commission he used the slush fund’s cash, which was obtained via bogus invoices to building company Thiess in Perth, to pay for renovations at Gillard’s Melbourne home.

It is an allegation that Gillard has heard and denied many times. In 1995, in a tape-recorded interview by the firm shortly before she abruptly departed, she said she could not rule it out; but by 2012 as prime minister she insisted she paid for her renovations.

As a result of a separate and ongoing Victoria Police Fraud Squad investigation led by Detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell, much of the spadework has already been done.

Heydon and his senior counsel, Jeremy Stoljar SC, can question Blewitt and other witnesses with the advantage of great chunks of evidence obtained by the Fraud Squad and loaned to the royal commission.

The evidence underlines why the fraud in this case is neither complicated nor difficult to identify. It is there in black and white — details of dodgy bank accounts, bogus invoices, large cash withdrawals, incorporation and registration records for the slush fund and records of the Kerr Street transaction.

Blewitt narrated the evidence under the careful questioning of Heydon and Stoljar yesterday.

They covered a lot of ground. Along the way, the disclosure of police evidence highlighted how exhaustive the Fraud Squad’s investigation has been. Expenses reimbursement records placing Blewitt at a “Slater & Gordon dinner” at the Patee Thai restaurant in Fitzroy on February 3, 1993, for which he claimed $80 from the AWU, were accompanied by other records indicating he returned to Perth the next morning.

This evidence could become more important because of his earlier claims that a February 4 power-of-attorney document was falsely witnessed by the Melbourne-based Gillard.

Blewitt gave a persuasive performance as the stooge and bagman for his boss.

He can expect a tougher hearing today when Wilson’s lawyer starts on cross-examination.