The Australian today reports charges over AWU slush fund to return focus to Julia Gillard
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Ralph Blewitt was in Australia for Anzac Day - I've spoken with him a number of times and both he and Ruby are happy and well.
Here's part of Hedley;s story today - you can read more at The Australian.
Charges over AWU slush fund to return focus to Julia Gillard
Former prime minister Julia Gillard is facing further scrutiny of her role in helping to set up a fraudulent union slush fund as Victorian police prepare to charge a key player in the saga.
A senior Victoria Police detective has told self-confessed AWU bagman and fraudster Ralph Blewitt that he will very soon be criminally charged over his role in the union slush fund set up with Ms Gillard’s legal advice.
Mr Blewitt said yesterday he intended to plead not guilty and would instruct his lawyers to subpoena witnesses, including Ms Gillard, to give evidence under oath.
Detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell of the Fraud Squad, who has been leading the two-year investigation, which provided key evidence to the ongoing royal commission into union graft, has told Mr Blewitt that at least two charges will be levelled in Victoria.
Mr Blewitt, who has admitted his involvement in fraud with his friend and former union boss Bruce Wilson, and their slush fund, the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association, yesterday said he understood others would be charged.
“Victoria Police are now recommending that I be charged over the frauds that were committed in Victoria, and the matter is going to the public prosecutor’s office,’’ Mr Blewitt, who is visiting Perth, told The Australian.
“I welcome the charges because I have co-operated with the police for over two years and I want to see others who were involved also made accountable.”
Mr Blewitt, who lives in Malaysia, said he had been told to brace for additional charges in Western Australia where the slush fund was incorporated in the early 1990s. It received hundreds of thousands of dollars for non-existent work from companies including the building giant Thiess. He said Victoria Police had recently sent a dossier of evidence to WA detectives with the aim of launching a prosecution process in that state, too.