(extract from Bruce Wilson's evidence to the TURC)

Commissioner Dyson Heydon made much of Nick Jukes's "credibility"

Nicholas Jukes was in general a very credible witness.

There is a testimonial controversy as to whether Wilson told Jukes that payments were to be made to an incorporated association separate from the AWU. Bruce Wilson’s testimony that he did has been rejected.

Here's an extract from Jukes's 1997 statement to police.

Someone very senior in Thiess certainly knew about the separate entity - how else to explain the separate vendor/supplier code with different address details for the AWU WRA Inc?

Here's the Commissioner again:

Nicholas Jukes felt under some pressure to draft the 16 March 1992 letter quickly and refer to the work starting in January 1992, because that was when he thought ‘the AWU had commenced working on the project’. This evidence must be accepted. It supports Nicholas Jukes’ other evidence to the effect that he thought the Association was the AWU. Nicholas Jukes gave evidence that he had been told by Bruce Wilson that work had commenced on the Dawesville site in January 1992.  He was not cross-examined on this evidence. It must be accepted.

 

See below in the BCITF records as to when work was actually commenced - not until May 1993.  

 

Jukes had reached agreement with Bruce Wilson in late 1991 - and that agreement was for a formula of 36 monthly payments totalling $300,000 .  That's what Wilson said was agreed, that's what was actually paid and the $36 x 54 hours x 52 weeks x 3 years is an irresistibly round number - $300K - intended to be paid as a secret commission to Ludwig/Wilson et al.

 

Here's the Commissioner again

 

Bruce Wilson alleged that the letter was superseded or overridden by an earlier oral agreement between himself and Nicholas Jukes pursuant to which Thiess would make monthly payments from the outset of the Dawesville Channel Project until the end regardless of whether any work was in fact carried out. For reasons given below, this was false evidence. It was very damaging to his general credibility.

The Commissioner was emphatic in his judgement call that the letter contained the whole agreement.

Nick Jukes himself said the letter did not reflect the whole agreement in his statement to police in 1997.

The Commissioner was not aware of the separate internal Thiess cost centres for the AWU WRA Inc and the AWU proper.  That led him to mis-state the process Thiess adopted in paying - without question - the sham association's sham invoices, cover for the transmission of secret commissions.

Here's John Heydon in his final report on the AWU WRA matter:

On 13 October 1992 the BCITF Board approved the Thiess proposal - that is 7 days after it was cobbled together.

Bruce Wilson was a director of the BCITF at the time of the approval.

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/01/bruce-wilson-director-of-the-building-and-construction-industry-training-fund-and-a-gillard-mystery-.html

The first "workplace reform" or grader driver training did not commence until May 1993.

By August that year it was done and dusted.

And the whole project was completed by April 1994.

https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/Hearings/Documents/Evidence9September2014/TrioStatement.pdf

So why did Thiess keep paying the AWU WRA invoices if the site was flooded, the channel open and the project closed?

It really does beggar belief that Stoljar and Heydon didn't pick that little discrepancy up.

In August 1994 the Hitchen review of the BCITF submitted its final report.

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/review-of-building-and-construction-industry-training-fund-and-levy-collection-act-1990-1.pdf

It made these glaring and frightening observations about the half a million dollars used to deliver 278 hours of training to an initial 30 plant operators, of whom only 12 stayed with the whole program.  Note also its finding that "workplace reform" is a dubious activity for funding by the BCITF.

 Here's how the half a million went.

The BCITF's money was still being burnt burning multimedia CDs for a while - but the workplace had been as reformed as it was ever going to get.

One final observation.

When the details of what Wilson etc had been up to surfaced, Tim Daly and Peter Trebilco beat a path to the BCITF's door seeking info about the project.

You might recall in the previous post Tim Daly's very direct question to Nick Jukes, putting Jukes on notice that Daly knew the BCITF was not the source of the money that paid the Wilson/Gillard slush fund.

Given the Board's composition, it's probably no surprise that Tim and Peter weren't quite met with open arms.

And those training funds were spent (badly) on plant operator training.

Jukes is not telling the truth when he says that the AWU WRA Inc was in any way a party to this deal.

Beyond his police statements, Jukes floated this line in the media:

Between 1992 and 1995, about $370,000 flowed through two Perth-based accounts - operated in the name of the "AWU Workplace Reform Association Inc" - which, until last month, had never been heard of in the AWU's national offices in Sydney.

All the money came from the big construction group Thiess Contractors, which says the payments were legitimate, arising from a tripartite agreement between it, the AWU and the West Australian Government.

Indeed, says Thiess, the Government paid it money for an employee training program at a $58 million Thiess construction project and it then paid the AWU.

The truth must have been pretty rugged for Nick Jukes to come up with a cock and bull story like this one.

Gillard used the BCITF project to support her submission to the Minister arguing the case for incorporation of the association during the ministerial review of the Commissioner's decision not to incorporate.

By 1996/7 when the shit hit the fan, Gillard was working in John Brumby's office as Chief of Staff.  Nick Jukes was off riding solo with his over-zealous and quite revealing stories about the role of the BCITF.  Gillard is a much better liar, but each of Jukes and Gillard are responsible for some pretty egregious misleading and deceptive evidence.

That the Royal Commission with its phalanx of accountants and lawyers gave credit to Jukes and didn't so much as glance at his police and media statements about the BCITF etc is truly shameful.

The WA Police FOI records show Dave McAlpine took the following statements in 1997:

STATEMENT 4. : AWU organiser

1. Thiess proposed and got funding for industry reform and training at Dawesville. The project involved Thiess, AWU …….. BCITF
2. March 1993 Project Manager at this project at Dawesville implemented training
3. Never saw …………. Involved with project.
4. Never heard of AWU-WRA

STATEMENT   8 AWU 

1. Looked after Dawesville . Went approximately once a week
2. 1994 – appointed to the BCITL
3. Provided training to workers at Dawesville
4. Never heard of the AWU-WRA
5. Never saw …………. At Dawesville nor did I see them provide training or reform 

STATEMENT    9      Building Construction Industry Levy  (   B C I T L  )

1 Thiess proposed and got funding for industry reform and training at Dawesville. The project involved Thiess, AWU ……………B C I T L 

2. March 93 project manager of this project at Dawesville implemented training

3. Never saw………..involved with the project or ……..

4. Never heard of the AWU-WRA

ENDS

PS - Due in large part to the wanton incompetence of the Trade Union Royal Commission, Ralph Blewitt is currently on bail awaiting trial on 31 counts of deceiving "credible witness" Nick Jukes and his underlings at Thiess.

He's charged with single handedly causing a financial detriment to Thiess by deception - ie by raising the sham invoices from the sham incorporated association.  Rather than deceive Thiess, it was Thiess's executives who had conspired with Wilson and others and by agreement had decided on the process of monthly invoices to cover for Thiess's secret commission payments to Ludwig/Wilson/Gillard et al.

It's an outrage that Blewitt's being put through this doomed prosecution - but more outrageous still is the protection being afforded others who were genuinely concerned with facilitating corrupt payments.

Blewitt is a cooperative and motivated whistle blower, eager to tell all about what went on in this matter.  It's tragic that rather than trying to tap into his first hand knowledge, he's quarantined away awaiting prosecution on charges that don't fit the actual crimes.

There's little joy in this work for me now - but I do it in the hope that at some point the self-evident truth as to what really went on in The AWU Scandal might come to the attention of authorities, currently blinded by the status and personalities of some of the offenders.

Every touch leaves its trace.

PPS

Here are some BCITF and other documents.  I'd appreciate your insights - in particular as the story told in the documents relates to the Jukes fairy tale.

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/12/nick-jukess-statement-to-wa-police-in-1997-about-the-gyles-royal-commission-and-sham-payments.html

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2016/10/more-on-the-apparently-forged-gillard-letter-from-wa-corporate-affairs-.html

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/01/a-quick-reminder-of-what-was-reported-at-the-time-that-wilson-got-away-with-the-money.html    

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2013/04/some-difficult-statements-for-thiess-executives-to-substantiate-did-you-get-what-you-paid-for-or-did.html

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/thiess-submission.pdf

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/video-fillum-company.pdf

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/earth-moving-forms.pdf

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/minutes-of-board-meeting-thiess-project.pdf

http://michaelsmithnews.typepad.com/files/review-of-building-and-construction-industry-training-fund-and-levy-collection-act-1990-1.pdf

http://resources.news.com.au/files/2013/12/09/1226779/285443-131210-aus-file-wilson.pdf

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/01/bruce-wilson-director-of-the-building-and-construction-industry-training-fund-and-a-gillard-mystery-.html

http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=nstore&kw=Thiess&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=01%2F01%2F95&ed=01%2F01%2F97&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news960730_0038_5547

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2015/07/new-evidence-thiess-executives-should-be-recalled-to-face-the-trade-union-royal-commmission.html

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2012/12/the-australians-piece-on-joe-trio-today.html