AWU slush fund investigator Harry Nowicki loses cancer fight

Harry Nowicki, a former lawyer who investigated Julia Gillard’s connections to an AWU slush fund, died yesterday.

Harry Nowicki said the slush fund saga ‘would be more entertaining if it were not so serious’. Picture: Adam Taylor

Harry Nowicki, a former union lawyer in Melbourne who invest­igated Julia Gillard’s connections to an Australian Workers Union slush fund, leading to the trade union royal commission being set up, died on Wednesday after a brief illness. He was 67.

Early in his career, Mr Nowicki was a legal adviser to the then Builders Labourers Federation and its boss, Norm Gallagher, who was jailed for corrupt­ion-­related ­offences. Mr Nowicki said the experien­ce gave him a valuable insight into union wrong­doing and secret commissions, which were at the heart of the AWU slush fund scandal.

He later led a legal firm in Melbourne then retired to launch his investigation of the slush fund.

Mr Nowicki, who had been working on a book about the AWU case, died in his sleep on Wednesday. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for months.

In the early stage of his investig­ation, Mr Nowicki used Freedom of Information laws to collate hundreds of sensitive documents from West Australian and ­Victorian police, which had pursued Ms Gillard’s former client­ and boyfriend, AWU boss Bruce Wilson, for alleged fraud in the 1990s.

In 2012, Mr Nowicki went to Malaysia and persuaded Mr Wilson­’s former friend and AWU sidekick, Ralph Blewitt, to confess to his corrupt role in the alleged slush fund fraud. Mr Blewitt’s ­August 2012 revel­ations in The Australian of his corrupt conduct led to Nick Styant­-Browne, the former equity partner of Slater & Gordon lawyers­, releasing confidential documents about the firm’s concern­s at the time over the conduct of its partner ­employee, Ms Gillard, in providing advice to help set up the slush fund for her client and boyfriend.

An inquiry was launched, later widened to become the trade union royal commission headed by Dyson Heydon. He heard evidence from a builder, Athol James, and a forme­r union staffer, Wayne Hem, who testified about “wads of cash” and large deposits in Ms Gillard­’s favour. Mr Heydon rejected Ms Gillard­’s evidence that she did not receive any cash from the slush fund for benefits including home renovations.

The commission did not recom­mend charges against the ­former prime minister, who repeatedl­y denied wrongdoing.

Mr Nowicki told The Australian during his investigation: “Every day I learn a bit more about this saga, which would be more entertaining if it were not so serious.”

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.