In December 1991 Thiess signed contracts for the Dawesville Channel with the WA Government.  Jukes and Wilson had several discussions about the workplace reform model for the project, but nothing tangible was produced.

On 4 February 1992 worked started.

Bruce Wilson tells us his attempts to get his slush fund up and running without professional help were unsuccessful.   He couldn't do it by himself.  So, he tells us, he turned to Julia Gillard to help him.   But the months were slipping by and the slush fund money was banking up.

On 6 March 1992 the first public step in the incorporation process - the ad - appeared in The West Australian.

But Gillard wants us to believe she had nothing to do with it.   Gillard can be relied on for only admitting what she has to.  

https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/Hearings/Documents/Evidence10September2014/turc-transcript-10september2014.pdf

Bruce Wilson told the Royal Commission:

At some stage in March 1992 I recall that Julia Gillard was in Perth and we had a discussion about the application for incorporation of the WRA.

In March 1992 Blewitt and I attended a meeting with Jukes and Joe Trio.   I informed them the legal entity was to be called the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.   I said that Blewitt was to be the secretary and correspondence should go to him.   I said they would be dealing with us in our WRA capacities.

I can recall sitting with Gillard in my office and she told me which sections of the legislation were relevant for the incorporation of the association.   I drafted the objects myself.   Gillard made a few notations on the Application form (the name and Section 4 (1) (e) of the Act.

In order for the association to be incorporated, its unincorporated predecessor had to authorise the application and place an ad (like the one above) in the local newspaper.  Without that first step, nothing else could proceed.

Gillard denies any involvement in creating the advertisement for the AWU WRA - although it is a Gillard Cat B cautious and contingent denial leaving open an escape route just in case more evidence is uncovered.

43   A. Mr Stoljar, I don't recall drafting this advertisement. I don't believe I did draft this advertisement, so I am not in a position really to help you with the meaning of the advertisement.

This ad is very dangerous to Gillard.   It tells several lies.   It pretends there was a pre-existing association, which there wasn't.   And it's specific about the purpose for which the Association is formed - definitely not as an election fund.

But Julia - if you can't remember that week all by yourself, we have great news!

Maybe this record will help you, starting with your pet client the clothes makers appearing in the WA Commission.

The Western Australian Clothing and Allied Trades' Industrial Union of Workers v Fullin Tailoring and Others [1992] WAIRComm 31 (27 February 1992)

NO. 1303 OF 

The Western Australian Clothing and Allied Trades' Industrial Union of Workers

Clothing Trades Award 1973

(No. 16 of 1972)

COMMISSIONER S.A. KENNEDY 27 February 1992

THE COMMISSIONER: This is an application by The Western Australian Clothing and Allied Trades' Industrial Union of Workers (hereinafter 'the Union') for an increase in the award rates prescribed in Clause 18. - Wages of the Clothing Trades Award 1973. The increase sought is the 2.5% allowed under the Wage Fixing Principles as enunciated in Matter No. 704 of 1991   [71 WAIG 1723].  The proposed rates are identified in an amended schedule which is before the Commission by leave.

ENDS - see original here

27 February 1992 was a Thursday.  That would leave Friday 28 February and Monday 2 March for work in the AWU office, creating the necessary documents for the AWU/Thiess site agreement and the AWU WRA, including the ad.   Former AWU WA branch finance director recalls Gillard's presence in the AWU office using the word processor:

Someone who was fastidious with their punctuation composed the words for the ad in the paper, right down to hyphens, the apostrophe of possession and the abbreviated Inc. 

Here's the wording in the ad.

Here is the Gillard handwriting on the application form, you'll see the grammar, hyphen, apostrophe, capitalisation etc is unmistakable.   Someone had to communicate that to the West Australian for the ad.

What are the odds the co-conspirators trusted Ralph Blewitt's unique combination of random lower case/Capitalisations and the trade marked Blewitt dotted capital I?

Just another thing for a good prosecutor to put to each of the conspirators.

PS - thanks to Seeker of Truth for finding the 27 February 1992 Clothing matter in the WA IRC.  The Seeker also adds this to today's piece:

In late January 1992 the 106th Annual Conference of the Australian Workers Union was held. Is it a coincidence that shortly after the 106th Conference, Wilson decides he wants an incorporated association with the name AWU WRA? Is it a coincidence that shortly after the work commenced on the Dawesville site, Wilson urgently needed an incorporated association for a slush fund? You have to ask did Wilson get the nod from Ludwig at the January conference to go ahead with his idea to screw Thiess for payments for industrial peace on the Dawesville site once the bulldozers turned the first sod of soil. If not, then what explanation is there for choosing late February as the time to act on an incorporated association for a "slush fund"?