Opposition claims 'cover-up' as more AWU files go missing

CRUCIAL court files detailing the Australian Workers Union's discovery of internal fraud 17 years ago have mysteriously vanished.

CRUCIAL court files detailing the Australian Workers Union's discovery of internal fraud 17 years ago and the fight to overturn redundancies to dodgy union officials - including Julia Gillard's former boyfriend Bruce Wilson - have mysteriously vanished.

Yesterday the Federal Court confirmed that key documents filed in the Industrial Relations Court's Queensland registry in 1995 by then AWU national president Bill Ludwig had been lost in the past nine months.

Julie Bishop called yesterday for a police investigation into their disappearance, saying "unless they are located, the assumption must be that they have been stolen".

"Unless there are plausible explanations as to why official records would go missing from record-keeping institutions, such as WA state archives and the Federal Court, this is starting to look like a sinister cover-up and the deliberate destruction of documents which could otherwise throw light on the true involvement of a number of people in a massive fraud," the Deputy Opposition Leader said.

The files are the third set of documents relating to the AWU from the period to go missing.

The Australian revealed last month that the file held by the State Records Office in Perth on the AWU Workplace Reform Association was empty.

It should contain key documents from 1992, when the association was registered by the West Australian government.

Slater & Gordon also has disclosed that it cannot find its file on the association, which the Prime Minister helped set up as a salaried partner at the law firm and later described as a "slush fund".

The Federal Court documents were filed by Mr Ludwig in a bid to recover the large redundancies paid to Mr Wilson and other AWU officials - including his bagman Ralph Blewitt and their friend Bill Telikostoglou.

Retired lawyer and union historian Harry Nowicki says the files contain affidavits from key players and the details of the meetings in which the AWU became aware of fraudulent activity.

These include the national executive meeting of August 16, 1995, which voted to pay large redundancy cheques of AWU members' money.

"I can confirm the files in question cannot currently be located," said a spokesman for the Federal Court. "However, the court continues to search and make inquiries as to their whereabouts.

"The files date back to the mid-1990s and are kept in off-site storage, meaning they have to be retrieved, delivered to court and, on some occasions, sent to interstate registries."

It appears the files were lost in a return transfer from Melbourne to Brisbane.

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon yesterday ruled out instigating any legal action into the actions of Ms Gillard, saying it was not her "role to be doing that".