Attack on character would not hold up, says Peter Faris QC

JULIA Gillard's efforts to eliminate the accusations of Ralph Blewitt by attacking his character would never succeed in court, says Peter Faris QC.

JULIA Gillard's efforts to eliminate the accusations of her accuser Ralph Blewitt by attacking his character would never succeed in the criminal justice system, according to Melbourne silk Peter Faris QC.

The Prime Minister has challenged people to make a choice between her credibility and that of Mr Blewitt, who she described on Monday as "a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar, and his sister has said he's a crook and rotten to the core".

Mr Blewitt, who was an associate of Ms Gillard's former boyfriend Bruce Wilson - and the Prime Minister's former client - has alleged she was not present for the signing of a power of attorney.

Ms Gillard, while denying any wrongdoing, did not specifically deny this accusation during a news conference on Monday.

Mr Blewitt, who has given a statement to police, has admitted being a party to sham transactions and fraud involving slush funds that were concealed from the Australian Workers Union.

Mr Faris said the criminal justice system regularly took evidence from people with character flaws that were far worse than those alleged against Mr Blewitt.

Mr Faris, who is co-author of Australian Uniform Evidence Law, said that courts took evidence from people who were accused of criminal conduct, even though it might need to be treated with care or require corroboration.

Mr Faris said the law also drew a distinction between evidence that relied upon the unaided memory of a witness, and evidence that was supported by a contemporary written record, such as the diary kept by former AWU secretary Ian Cambridge while investigating corruption within the union.

His co-author, Mirko Bagaric, said notes and records that are made at the time are more likely to be more accurate than memory.

The diary records that union official Wayne Hem had told Mr Cambridge, now a commissioner of Fair Work Australia, that Mr Wilson gave him $5000 to deposit in Ms Gillard's bank account.

Ms Gillard said on Monday she had no recollection of this and banking records no longer existed.

Professor Bagaric said the fact that Mr Hem had attested to the accuracy of Mr Cambridge's account could be seen as strengthening the case that other parts of the diary were also accurate.

The diary also states that union official Helmut Gries told Mr Cambridge about the possible misuse of AWU funds.

But Mr Gries, 72, and retired, has said that while he is not infallible he is sure that he did not make such disclosures at the time.

He said he could not explain the diary's entry quoting him because while he did not believe he said it, he could not believe that Mr Cambridge would have made it up.