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 10AM - a fairly small crowd, maybe a dozen people for the Counsel Assisting's opening address.

 The Commissioner is now addressing the hearing room - he commences with a description of his Letters Patent and their extension.

The Commissioner spoke at length about the Health Services Union and matters involving Kathy Jackson.  He referred to submissions from Kathy Jackson, the HSU and Counsel Assisting which put the view that proceedings in the Federal Court involving the HSU and Ms Jackson ought to be allowed to run their course before the Commission deals with the allegations underpinning those proceedings.

The Commissioner said that issues affecting Ms Jackson are "interlinked" with issues involving Peter Mylan, Michael Williamson, Craig Thomson and the HSU No 1 Branch.

Now that the Craig Thomson criminal matters are finalised, the Commission may "deal with" the Thomson allegations this year.

The Commissioner finished this section of his address by emphasising, "the matters involving Ms Jackson will have to be dealt with by the Commission unless there are very good reasons to the contrary".

The Commissioner spoke at length about the CBUS leak of member superannuation information to the CFMEU.  He explained that last year the Commission did not examine the role of CBUS CEO David Atkin extensively - he referred to a CBUS board initiated review of CBUS processes and the circumstances surrounding the leak, the review to be conducted by for ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel and one other.   He explained that the Commission would deal further with this matter this year.

The Commissioner spoke about George Alex and his medical conditions.

The Commissioner referred to his opening address in 2014 and the delineation of witnesses duties to tell the truth.   he spoke about the HSU Victoria Branch and Diana Asmar, he spoke at length about unsatisfactory and dishonest evidence, quoting again the perjury of Ms Zanatta and the probable perjury of Ms Butera.   He said, "unions do not give evidence, witnesses do".

The Commissioner spoke about a number of threats against witnesses, including the bashing of Jimmy Kendrovski in gaol prior to his giving evidence.

The Commissioner spoke about the process for cross examination and the means by which one person who disagrees with the evidence of another might bring his or her contrary evidence before the commission.

The Commissioner gave an passionate defence of the role of Counsel Assisting against allegations that his approach was unbalanced, insufficient or lacking in zeal.

AT 1038 THE COMMISSIONER INVITED COUNSEL ASSISTING TO MAKE AN ADDRESS

Jeremy Stoljar SC is now addressing the Commission.

He started with a recap of the Commission's 2014 activities.   Mr Stoljar spoke about the "generic" slush funds the Commissioner investigated, including the AWU WRA Inc.

He spoke about the lack of oversight, use of union resources, use of slush funds for personal benefits accruing to the persons who set them up and in particular the use of slush funds to advance various persons political interests including election to parliamentary office.

He spoke of the Commission uncovering evidence that certain union officials had engaged in conspiracy, blackmail. extortion, false invoicing, threats and other serious criminal activities.

Mr Stoljar said that in the past few months (of 2015) considerable preparatory work had been conducted in advance of the public hearings that will commence next Monday.  This includes private hearings, document gathering and other processes.

Mr Stoljar spoke with some passion about the honest union officials he has met during the course of the Commission's proceedings, he said it was one of the "privileges" of his role.   He spoke at length about the history of trade unions, including in France, the United Kingdom and the various states of Australia.  He loves his history.

 Mr Stoljar noted that with union amalgamations there are now fewer trade unions - that means that power is more concentrated in the hands of fewer trade union leaders.

UNIONS ARE NOW LARGE BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

Mr Stoljar said unions are now large business enterprises, not the "not for profit" entities established in the 19th century.   He spoke about the rise of the professional union manager, no longer a person who comes from the shop floor, serves for a time as a union rep, then goes back to the shop floor.

Mr Stoljar spoke about the ALP and its development to advance the interests of various unions and union members.   he said it's not within the terms of reference to look at the ALP, however it is within the terms to look at the conduct of very powerful union secretaries and to examine whether or not they have acted other then in the interests of their members while pursuing various political ends.

Mr Stoljar spoke about Enterprise Agreements and the potential for various conflicts of interest involving both union officials (who might receive for example secret commissions) or corrupt companies (who might give them).

He also spoke about union officials themselves and their role within unions - he spoke about their elections and the potential for the union's resources to be used by one candidate or another to advance their electoral interests - perhaps the law needs to be tightened in this area.

Mr Stoljar spoke about developments since the Commission's interim report was handed to the Governor General, including court action in Victoria involving the CFMEU.  Mr Stoljar is talking about the adequacy of punitive measures against union officials who break the law.

Mr Stoljar spoke at length about the CFMEU's criminal contempts of court and the inadequacy of the penalties associated with those contempts.

He said the Commission's findings in one sense could be distilled into a sentence , "SOME UNION LEADERS DISREGARD THEIR LEGAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES." (or similar).

He said the problem was with those rogue leaders, not unions themselves, nor with honest union members.

He said legislators should consider introducing banning orders to disqualify rogue union leaders from holding office - similar to the provisions that apply to conpamy directors.  He said the Commission will issue in the next few weeks a detailed discussion paper on this issue.

Mr Stoljar introduced new members of his team and thanked the Commissions's staff for its performance to date.   At 1118 he concluded his address.

The Commissioner thanked Mr Stoljar and gave some explanation about the role of the unionist Mr Monk during the time of the Chifley government, in particular Mr Monk's role in convincing unionists of the benefits of greater immigration, he also spoke about the history of the White Australia Policy and concluded by referring to his own comments as being of "marginal" import.

The Commission rose at 1120 until 10AM Monday.