Unions royal commission: Shorten targeted as PM targets unions

Bill Shorten will face the political blowtorch for his leadership of the scandal-plagued AWU.

Bill Shorten leaves the Royal Commission after giving evidence into Trade Union Governance and Corruption. Picture: Adam Taylor

Bill Shorten will face the political blowtorch for his former leadership of the scandal-plagued ­Australian Workers Union after Malcolm Turnbull vowed to use the damning findings of the ­Heydon royal commission to make union corruption a frontline election issue.

The Prime Minister declared “Mr Shorten has got to answer for this” hours after tabling Dyson Heydon’s scathing final report on the two-year inquiry, which ­detailed “widespread” and “deep-seated” corruption by “louts, thugs, bullies, thieves, perjurers, those who threaten violence, errant fiduciaries and organisers of boycotts” in the union movement.

As unions rejected the inquiry as a “fix”, the Coalition unveiled plans to bring revamped laws to parliament built on Mr Heydon’s recommendation for an all-powerful regulator able to shut down registered organisations.

Mr Turnbull also vowed to ­reintroduce a bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission watchdog in the first week of parliament next year — a move that could create an early election trigger after draft laws stalled in the Senate.

Crossbenchers David Leyonhjelm and Nick Xenophon ­yesterday raised the prospect of the Prime Minister using the legislation as a trigger for a double-­dissolution election.

Mr Turnbull said the report’s release was “a real watershed ­moment for the Labor movement, for its leaders, for Mr Shorten”.

“We are willing to fight an election on this ... if we cannot get the passage of this legislation through the Senate, then in one form or ­another it will be a major issue at the next election,” he said.

Mr Shorten was cleared of any personal finding of wrongdoing by the inquiry; however, the implication throughout the report is that he benefited from possible corruption, with Mr Heydon noting a string of sweetheart deals with companies struck under his leadership of the union.

The Opposition Leader declined to face the public yesterday. His office said he was on “long planned Xmas leave with the family”. Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said Labor had “zero tolerance for bad behaviour and if any union or any union ­official has done the wrong thing, they should face the full force of the law”.

“What we won’t accept is a ­politically motivated set of recommendations that’s about destroying the union movement,” Ms Plibersek said.

Arguing the need for tougher laws on union transparency and corruption, Mr Turnbull singled out the relationship between the AWU and Melbourne-based business Clean­event, fostered under Mr Shorten’s leadership, which led to a deal to inflate union membership in return for a below-award workplace deal with the union.

“The opportunity for Mr Shorten is plain,’’ Mr Turnbull said. “He can be part of an exercise of ­reform, he can pretend ... that there’s nothing wrong, that everything’s fine, that all of these practices were OK. He can argue all of that if he likes but he won’t ­persuade anybody because his members, ordinary working men and women, members of the AWU, were sold out.”

Attorney-General George Brandis highlighted Mr Heydon’s 14 findings against the AWU for possible corruption, false accounting, and “breaches of the civil law” and declared that “it is notable that for most of the period under scrutiny, Mr Shorten led the AWU”.

Putting more pressure on Labor, Senator Brandis said Taskforce Heracles — the existing police taskforce attached to the royal commission — would be funded to continue investigating referrals.

He also pledged to create a body to investigate union corruption: a working group of 11 federal departments and agencies led by the Department of Employment and including the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Crime ­Commission, the Australian ­Competition & Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. The government’s promise to adopt all 79 of Mr Heydon’s recommendations will appease party conservatives who were demanding a robust response to the inquiry convened by former prime minister Tony Abbott last year to “shine a great big spotlight into the dark corners of our community”.

GRAPHIC: Heydon report part 1

Mr Heydon also detailed ­examples of corruption within the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Transport Workers Union, the Health Services Union and the National Union of Workers. He referred former AWU boss turned Victorian Labor MP Cesar Melhem to prosecutors to consider possible corruption and false accounting charges alongside recommendations against senior unionists from the CFMEU, HSU, MUA and the TWU. “The case studies examined have revealed widespread misconduct that has taken place in every polity in Australia except for the Northern Territory,” he said.

Mr Heydon’s final report comes after his interim findings ­referred 26 people to 11 agencies, including recommending former AWU leaders Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewitt face criminal investigation over alleged corruption involving a union slush fund. The interim report also referred to police CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka and Shaun Reardon, who have been arrested and charged with blackmail.

GRAPHIC: Heydon report part 2

Employer groups yesterday welcomed the report. Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said it demonstrated that the case for change to the laws governing trade unions and ­related entities was “irrefutable”.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Wilhelm Hanrisch said it was crucial that the government’s new laws passed the Senate because “the community needs these laws”.

While measures to curtail union power have so far met resistance from crossbench senators such as Jacquie Lambie and Glenn Lazarus, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said she hoped the Heydon report would tip the balance. Senator Cash insisted union leaders were “not untouchable” despite slow prosecutions following Mr Heydon’s interim report.

Senator Leyonhjelm urged Mr Turnbull to go to an early double-dissolution election if the Senate continued to block the bills in the new year. Senator Xenophon said it would be “foolish” if the Senate continued to block “sensible ­reforms” and noted there was a “world of difference” between the government’s proposals and John Howard’s Work Choices laws.