I've printed a few paragraphs here of a lengthy piece in today's Australian Financial Review newspaper from the AWU Conference.

I'm amazed at the statement made by the reporters (and/or the publisher's lawyers) 'There is no evidence that Gillard is the subject of this investigation".  I know of plenty.   That said it's entirely immaterial and of no consequence to the investigation whether it's reported that Ms Gillard is or isn't a person-of-interest.  Newspaper reports don't influence police investigations and those investigations are months and months away from completion.   The police investigation will find what it finds without help from journalists.

I think this sort of report does do something - it erodes public confidence in the journals that make them.   I know I lose faith in them.  I'm not singling out the Fin Review in this comment - I've not spoken to its editor on this issue - but I have spoken to a number of other newspaper editors who say it's just not worth running a line that's critical of Julia Gillard on this issue.   They're genuinely apprehensive of the consequences.   I've heard it from journalists too who point to Glenn Milne and me as examples of her expression of wrath.

One final point.   The Australian, The AFR and The AGE/SMH all carry lengthy analytical pieces which describe in a matter of fact way the political importance of the AWU.  

The AWU arguably represents the interests of 140,000 members (although there are disputes as to how many of those "membership tickets" represent financial members).   It can't be good for Australia that officials who represent just 140,000 people out of a population of 23,000,000 should be able so brazenly to exercise the sort of Svengali like power we've seen on display in the past week.

Howes backs Gillard despite AWU scandal

MARK SKULLEY AND JAMES MASSOLA

The police investigation into the alleged union slush fund that Julia Gillard helped establish for her former boyfriend 20 years ago presents a delicate balancing act for Australia’s highest profile unionist.

The national secretary of The Australian Workers’ Union Paul Howes, and his fellow union leaders, have condemned the fraud alleged at the Health Services Union, but the Victorian police have a new and substantial investigation into dealings involving his own union and former AWU officials two decades ago.

Howes this week reaffirmed his undivided support for the Prime Minister at the AWU’s biennial conference on the Gold Coast, which was attended by Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Workplace Relations minister Bill Shorten and a host of other leaders.

Gillard has insisted she did nothing wrong when doing legal work for former boyfriend Bruce Wilson – then an official of the AWU – and his sidekick Ralph Blewitt all those years ago. The Prime Minister tried to draw a line under the matter with a pair of exhaustive press conferences in August and November last year, blasting her pursuers as misogynists and “nut jobs” but not quite bringing the matter to a close.

She is angry at becoming a cause célèbre but Howes, who is still just 31, reckons that he tends to elicit an extreme response from all parts of the political spectrum.

“The tin foil hat brigade, those internet people, I mean, who cares? I have been on Twitter for years and, from the day I joined, I’ve have all kinds of crazy people sitting in heir underpants typing, out in the middle of the night, weird messages to me,” he tells The Australian Financial Review at the conference.

“The great thing about my positioning is that is that I get attacked viciously by the right and by the left.”

The police inquiry is continuing and has followed leads into three other states. There is no evidence that Gillard is the subject of this investigation, which follows a complaint to police from former Sydney radio announcer, Michael Smith, about a power of attorney document she drew up in order for Bruce Wilson to buy a house in inner Melbourne on behalf of Blewitt.

The police have refused to comment publicly on the issues they are investigating. Howes says the union would co-operate with the Victorian police inquiry, but had not had any contact with the police, putting him slightly at odds with former AWU national secretary, Ian Cambridge, who has called for anyone with information to contact police.

“If they want to reopen it . . . then that’s fine,” Howes says.

“But there’s no conspiracy here . . . I didn’t see anyone in the Liberal Party urging the DPP to prosecute then. I didn’t see any of these . . . right wing conspiracy theorists getting involved. If you look through the news clippings at the time . . . you don’t see people actively pursuing it. We know why they are now. It’s not because they care about the frauds that Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewittt committed . . . it’s because they are trying to smear the Prime Minister and I’m not going to get involved in that.”

Howes says the union’s former law firm, Slater & Gordon, has never asked the AWU to waive legal privilege on any files so they could be publicly released and that “every piece of documentation that the union holds is already in the public domain because it’s all been the subject of court hearings.”

Continue reading at the AFR

Paul, the police aren't tin foil hat wearers.