This record of the conversation has been censored or redacted to excise bits apparently in the name of client confidentiality.   I understand that Nick Styant-Browne is responsible for making those exclusions.

This is a true copy of the record of the conversation that ran in The Australian newspaper on 22 August, 2012.   I have edited it to exclude the sections devoted to Miss Gillard's house, the house at 1/85 Kerr Street and other extraneous matters.

Slater & Gordon transcript of a meeting between Peter Gordon, Geoff Shaw and Julia Gillard, at the time respectively senior partner, general manager and partner at the firm,

on September 11, 1995

PG: This is a discussion between Peter Gordon, Geoff Shaw and Julia Gillard on the?

JG: 11th

PG: 11th of September 1995. Julia, you first joined Slater & Gordon when?

JG: I think it was the 12th of October 1987; it was certainly October 1987.

PG: And at that time Slater & Gordon was not acting for the Australian Workers' Union?

(Two pages redacted)

PG: You became involved in a personal relationship with Bruce?

JG: Yes, I did.

PG: Was it about then or

JG: It was late 1981 (sic), 1991.

PG: Right. And, when Bruce came to Victoria, did he come alone or were there other Western Australian people who came with him?

JG: No, he came alone. Yes, at that stage I think he came alone. He was subsequently joined by an organiser from Western Australia called, his proper name (was) Vassilis Telikostoglou. He is known as either Bill Telikostoglou or simply Bill the Greek.

PG: Right. There is another fellow called Ralph Blewitt. Has he at all material times been Western Australian-based?

JG: Yes, he has. Bruce was acting secretary of the Victorian branch of the AWU so his substantive position was as secretary of the Western Australian branch. At some point, and I must admit I don't recall when, but some point past the transition to Victoria, he became permanently appointed as Victorian secretary of the AWU. Under the AWU's rules it's not possible to hold two elected positions, so Ralph became the Western Australian secretary of the AWU so, at Bruce's behest if you like, he filled . . .

(Half a page redacted.)

It's, it's common practice, indeed every union has what it refers to as a re-election fund, slush fund, whatever, which is the funds that the leadership team, into which the leadership team puts money so that they can finance their next election campaign. It is not proper to use union resources for election campaigns so you need to finance them yourself. Some of them, you know, they can cost $10,000, $20,000 -- they're not cheap. So the usual mechanism people use to amass that amount of money is that they require the officials who ran on their ticket to enter payroll deduction schemes where money each week or fortnight goes from their pay into a bank account which is used for re-election purposes from time to time. They also have different fundraisers, dinners and raffles and so on to amass the necessary amount of money to mount their re-election campaign. (EDITOR'S NOTE - "IT'S NOT PROPER TO USE UNION RESOURCES FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGNS".   What to make then of the Australian Workers' Union brand, a resource or asset of the union in the name of this sham association.  Note further that Fair Work Australia in its Craig Thomson pleadings defines election to a paid position as a personal benefit or advantage.   Even on this admission from Miss Gillard, it's hard to maintain the "I did nothing wrong" line when Wilson had access to the AWU's lawyers that no one else would have.)

(Several lines redacted.)

The thinking behind the forming of incorporated associations is that it had been our experience that if you did it in a less formal way, you just had someone, say Fred Bloggs, say, oh look, I'll just open a bank account and everybody can put the money into there, the problem developed that when the leadership team fractured, as relatively commonly happens, you got into a very difficult dispute about who was the owner of the monies in the bank account, so it was better to have an incorporated association, a legal entity, into which people could participate as members, that was the holder of the account. (EDITOR'S NOTE - PLEASE SEE NEXT POST RE THE WA ELECTION FUND)

(Two and a half pages redacted.)

PG: Yes. And to the extent that work was done on that file in relation to that, it was done by you?

JG: That's right.

PG: And did you get advice from anyone else in the firm in relation to any of those matters?

JG: No, I didn't.

(Two pages redacted.)

SEVERAL PAGES OF CONVERSATIONS ABOUT 1/85 KERR ST AND MISS GILLARD'S OWN HOME AND RENOVATIONS REMOVED)

PG: OK. Julia, the file that you gave us last Monday, that you gave Paul last Monday, could you just describe to us the circumstances in which you came across it, I think it's exactly right in front of you, isn't it?

JG: Yes, that's right.

PG: How, what are the circumstances in which we only got that last week? Can you talk about that?

JG: When Geoff and Nick came down and saw me about the conveyancing file, I must admit my recollection about the incorporation file was that I hadn't opened a file on system and that I had had some papers and at some point I had given the papers to (name redacted). I don't recall whether I said that to you but I remember having, I remember saying to Geoff I don't think I opened it on system to which Geoff then said, well, that will be easy enough to check. In the surrounding chaos, I must admit I didn't do anything to check whether or not I opened it on the system. I subsequently but relatively quickly thereafter went on a period of leave and, whilst I was focused on the issues surrounding this, I wasn't particularly focused about the file.

I said when -- to Leesha (ASSISTANT)-- when I went on leave was one of the things I was doing when I was packing up, did she remember this file at all? And she said she did and when I came back from leave she said that it was, that it had been in the cabinet, that she'd found it, did I want it?

PG: Why wasn't it opened on the system?

JG: I don't think there's any great scientific explanation for that, I didn't have an intention to charge on it, and from time to time I've done bits of work on files that I haven't opened up where I've just done relatively small jobs for unions that I wasn't intending to charge for. Ordinarily they would be kept on the union's file. (EDITOR'S NOTE, WHOEVER THIS WORK WAS FOR, IT WAS NOT FOR THE UNION)

We have a file for each union where we put little bits of free work or telephone attendances of advice we give, or they're kept on my personal file JEG general. This, this was a more substantial job than that and really ought to have been opened on system, but I think, well, I don't have a specific recollection of thinking to myself should I open it on system or shouldn't I open it on system, but apparently I didn't.

PG: Response redacted.

So that's what we  know of what was discussed at the time of Miss Gillard's departure from Slater and Gordon.