‘Just go’: Bill Shorten urged to quit after royal commission grilling on $40,000 donation

AS Bill Shorten faces a second day of grilling on the witness stand at the union corruption royal commission, one of his former party mates reckons we’ve seen enough.

BILL Shorten should resign in the wake of his appearance before the trade union royal commission, a former ALP national secretary says.

The Opposition Leader has fronted the inquiry to give a second day of evidence today.

Bob Hogg’s call comes after it was revealed the Opposition leader only declared on Monday a $40,000 donation made by labour-hire company Unibilt in 2007.

“Bill, do something for the ALP. It is simple. Just go,” Mr Hogg wrote on social media on Wednesday night.

The ALP national secretary from 1988 to 1993 described the late declaration as either a “real lapse of memory, sloppy bookkeeping or a hope no one would notice”.

“Take your pick,” he wrote.

Mr Hogg, the partner of former MP Maxine McKew, also took a swipe at how the donation was used to pay for a campaign director for Mr Shorten, accusing him of not understanding the idea of a conflict of interest.

“There is no good in pointing to the Liberals’ malfeasances in fundraising,” he wrote.

The Labor movement should not be in the game of “relativism”, Mr Hogg wrote, but “we should be setting ethical standards”.

The presence of Greg Combet at the commission, supporting Mr Shorten, didn’t help the party establish renewed credibility, Mr Hogg believes.

He also said it was sad to see frontbencher Gary Gray trying to rationalise the Opposition leader’s behaviour on ABC TV on Wednesday night.

Mr Gray described Mr Shorten’s declaration mistake as unhelpful, but not unusual.

Senior counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar started today’s proceedings by quizzing Mr Shorten on $300,000 payments from building giants Thiess and John Holland — that were working on Melbourne’s EastLink road project — to the AWU Victoria and its national office during 2005 and 2008.

Mr Stoljar asked Mr Shorten: “Is this a bogus invoice claiming for work never done?”

Mr Shorten replied: “I would never be party to issuing bogus invoices, full stop.”

Documents tendered showed Thiess John Holland had been billed more than $300,000 over three years by the AWU Victorian branch for a range of functions and services, including “occupational health and safety training”.

Mr Shorten said he expected the invoice for the back strain research would have been for a service that had “either been conducted or is going to be conducted”.

“I don’t recall (the research), but it would have been done if the invoice was issued,” he said.

Mr Shorten said he expected the invoice for the back strain research would have been for a service that had “either been conducted or is going to be conducted”.

“I don’t recall (the research), but it would have been done if the invoice was issued,” he said.

Mr Stoljar said other evidence presented to the royal commission suggested the AWU did not conduct the research.

“These invoices are issued by my accounts department,” Mr Shorten said.

“I can’t say explicitly what was triggering them, but in terms of back strain, that is a huge issue in civil construction and heavy industry.”

Originally published as ‘Just go’: Bill Shorten urged to quit after royal commission grilling on $40,000 donation