Cash movements in Members' Welfare Association account - 94-95 and AWU-WRA
Monday, 11 February 2013
The AWU-Members Welfare Association No1 account was used to receive and to hold union officials' salary deductions for election campaign expenses. Until December, 1994 its sole income was payroll deductions, from December, 1994 large cheques from construction companies totalling about $180,000.00 were deposited into the account.
No doubt the fact of the AWU name being in the account's title engaged Wilson's interest at some point. Note too Wayne Hem's statement in his Statutory Declaration that he became suspicious about building disputes involving companies with whom Wilson was in correspondence. He said that the disputes would "suddenly disappear".
Here is a copy of the account's statement for the latter part of 1994, the period about which Ms Gillard said,
I went away to, for a holiday, in late August early September last year and I had been talking for a long time about getting this bathroom and laundry work done.
And, Bruce whilst I was away decided that I should just get it done....
You'll note cheques on 12 October and 21 October, cheques number 13 and 14 each for $8,750. These cheques were made out to Town Mode, a business name of Kew Constructions Pty Ltd - a business engaged in home renovations.
Cheque 12 for $1,000 was made out to Diners Club. The last Town Mode cheque overdraws the account by $3,423.20. A transfer is made from another Victorian account controlled by Wilson and registered at his address called Re-Election Fund for $3,425.00 to bring Members' Welfare back into order.
The next significant transactions on this account occur in April 1995.
On 27 April 1995, cheque number 23 for $15,000 is presented and paid, the cheque was made out to cash. Here is a copy of the cheque, front and rear with the endorsement on the back of the cheque from a processing machine and in handwriting. The cheque was subpoenaed and produced in the AIRC in proceedings in The AWU Scandal. I am satisfied as to its provenance.
You will see the endorsement to pay $5,000 cash and $10,000 by bank cheque to K Spyridis.
During the period from August, 1994 to December, 1994 about $80,000 in cash was withdrawn from the AWU Workplace Reform Association account, with cheques as follows.
There was no shortage of cash available to Bruce Wilson and large withdrawals were made during the period of the home renovations. The withdrawals from the AWU-WRA stopped in December, 1994 with no withdrawals until March of 1995 and then only for an amount of $589.