Malcolm Turnbull's claim that Bill Shorten would be in jail under new union corruption laws is a serious misstep.
Turnbull chose to focus on Shorten in announcing the new Corrupting Benefits revision to the Fair Work Act - resulting in this sort of reporting.
The embattled Prime Minister used the passage through the Senate of a bill to ban all payments between unions and employers unless they were "legitimate" to zero in on his opponent after Labor opposed the bill.
"Bill Shorten was there defending corruption and secrecy, while the government was standing up for integrity and transparency," Mr Turnbull said.
"These are fundamental issues of values. Bill Shorten has been defending, tooth and nail, corruption and secrecy, defending big unions and union officials doing dodgy deals with employers at the expense of the workers.
"He is the wholly owned subsidiary of a union that has no regard for the law, that is flagrantly breaching the law, and like the puppet that he is, he has gone in there, sending his senators there to vote against legislation which does no more than require employers and unions to act honestly."
ENDS
Mark Riley of the 7 network totally dissed the legislation - "the real target was Bill Shorten".
Turnbull's claim that Shorten would be in jail under the new laws refers to his conduct while head of the AWU in organising side deals and payments from Cleanevent, ACI Glass, Thiess/John Holland and other employers.
The Trade Union Royal Commission examined those matters and found that Shorten's 2IC Cesar Melhem, the AWU itself (while Shorten was the secretary or chief executive) and others committed 16 offences involving secret commissions and bogus invoicing.
Shorten, however, was excluded from the recommendations for prosecution.
Brad Norrington covered the TURC for The Australian newspaper. He's no supporter of the "get Shorten" push. In his book "Planet Jackson, Power, Greed & Unions" he's critical of Jackson's TURC evidence linking Bill Shorten to corruption:
"If there was one extra person Jackson would have hoped to take down with her, then surely it was Bill Shorten. Whenever possible, she had dragged him into her labyrinthine tale of Labor's evil factions warlords advancing their lust for power with branch stacking and dodgy union slush funds."
Norrington however exquisitely dissects the illogicality of the TURC decision to prosecute Melhem but not Shorten. He devotes the best part of a chapter to the TURC's decision:
"By this stage (November 2015) the TURC was suffering a credibility problem, exacerbated by Heydon's decision to accept, then turn down an invitation to address a Liberal Party fundraiser. The standing of Heydon's Commission was weakened. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the debacle over the Liberal fundraiser contributed to Stoljar, and later Heydon, pulling back from pursuing Shorten.."
Norrington sets out Shorten's involvement in each of the matters in which his 2IC was recommended for charges:
"Melhem was referred to the Victorian DPP for 8 possible offences, 3 of soliciting a "secret commission" and 5 of "false accounting. He also referred the AWU organisation to police and to the Fair Work Commission...
"These serious findings against Melhem raise an obvious question: what was Shorten doing all the time he was in charge of his Victorian AWU branch, with so many alleged criminal and civil offences occurring on his watch?"
"In sworn evidence to the TURC Stephen SASSE (Thiess/John Holland) said Shorten was centrally involved in 2004 with ......the Eastlink road project. The agreement inclued the consortium undertaking to pay Shorten's union $300,000 over the 3 years of the project. SASSE said under oath that Shorten, in late 2004, proposed that the consortium pay....
"Julian Rzesniowiecki, the HR manager, told the royal commission that negotiations over the $300K side deal were conducted with Shorten...."
Norrington describes Shorten's other allegedly criminal behaviour sheeted home to Melhem.
This apparent immunity is deeply troubling.
Shorten's presence in the Parliament is a daily reminder. Turnbull's on-again, off-again matey-ness with Shorten even moreso.
It won't be fixed by magical new legislation, press conferences and posters.
Shorten walked because the TURC folded to his high power lawyer Leon Zwier from Arnold Bloch Leibler who demanded and was given a statement on 6 November 2015 from Stoljar stating, "There is no submission that Mr Shorten may have engaged in any criminal or unlawful conduct".
That left little wriggle room for the Commissioner in his final report.
There certainly was such a submission from me involving Shorten's apparent criminal acts. There still is.
The CFMEU/Daniels Government's new Solicitor for Public Prosecutions is John Cain Jr, the same John Cain who hand wrote a letter to the Commonwealth Bank co-signed by Bruce Wilson - claiming the AWU had "no interest" in about $180,000 Wilson had apparently extracted from various employers (including one cheque for $20,160 made out to the AWU Workplace Reform Association).
Victoria now apparently intends to take no action over the AWU Scandal, notwithstanding the clear cut criminality involving payments from Thiess to the Wilson/Gillard slush fund over the Melbourne Water contract (note Ralph Blewitt has not been charged with offences arising from the 7 Melbourne Water related invoices).
Senator Kimberley Kitching was referred by the TURC for prosecution. The CFMEU/Andrews Government had sufficient certainty she would not be prosecuted to recommend her to fill a Senate vacancy. What do they know that we don't.
If Turnbull's going to politicise his new legislation by focussing it on his political opponent, he could at least do us the courtesy of getting his facts straight.
Just like Gillard , Shorten is the beneficiary of a political climate that protects its own.
Craig Thomson's slap on the wrist for the most serious contempt of the Parliament and the people in Australia's history sets the tone and tells us all we need to know.
Turnbull's union legislation won't change that.
During the course of today I'll analyse the new corruption benefits legislation - what it will and won't do.
I'll also talk to you about Turnbull's history and equivocal statements about unions - sometimes he thinks they're terrific, but when it suits him he doesn't.
And finally one important point I think Turnbull is completely blind to.
When we hear report after report about union corruption, when we see CFMEU thugs act with impunity, when we pay triple what we should for government funded building projects we don't need to hear any more crap from the Government stating the bleeding obvious.
We know unions are corrupt, the CFMEU completely.
So why is the racketeering influenced corrupt organisation still there running its enforcement scams day in, day out?
Piecemeal legislation "outlawing" payments isn't going to fix that.
The CFMEU's conduct is clearly already criminal - yet our governments let them get away with it.
Get rid of them.
Turnbull and Michaelia Cash are out of their depth.
More soon.
Comments
Why would Turnbull's new union legislation put Shorten in jail when Shorten's 2IC is the fall guy for Shorten's crimes.
Malcolm Turnbull's claim that Bill Shorten would be in jail under new union corruption laws is a serious misstep.
Turnbull chose to focus on Shorten in announcing the new Corrupting Benefits revision to the Fair Work Act - resulting in this sort of reporting.
The embattled Prime Minister used the passage through the Senate of a bill to ban all payments between unions and employers unless they were "legitimate" to zero in on his opponent after Labor opposed the bill.
"Bill Shorten was there defending corruption and secrecy, while the government was standing up for integrity and transparency," Mr Turnbull said.
"These are fundamental issues of values. Bill Shorten has been defending, tooth and nail, corruption and secrecy, defending big unions and union officials doing dodgy deals with employers at the expense of the workers.
"He is the wholly owned subsidiary of a union that has no regard for the law, that is flagrantly breaching the law, and like the puppet that he is, he has gone in there, sending his senators there to vote against legislation which does no more than require employers and unions to act honestly."
ENDS
Mark Riley of the 7 network totally dissed the legislation - "the real target was Bill Shorten".
Turnbull's claim that Shorten would be in jail under the new laws refers to his conduct while head of the AWU in organising side deals and payments from Cleanevent, ACI Glass, Thiess/John Holland and other employers.
The Trade Union Royal Commission examined those matters and found that Shorten's 2IC Cesar Melhem, the AWU itself (while Shorten was the secretary or chief executive) and others committed 16 offences involving secret commissions and bogus invoicing.
Shorten, however, was excluded from the recommendations for prosecution.
Brad Norrington covered the TURC for The Australian newspaper. He's no supporter of the "get Shorten" push. In his book "Planet Jackson, Power, Greed & Unions" he's critical of Jackson's TURC evidence linking Bill Shorten to corruption:
"If there was one extra person Jackson would have hoped to take down with her, then surely it was Bill Shorten. Whenever possible, she had dragged him into her labyrinthine tale of Labor's evil factions warlords advancing their lust for power with branch stacking and dodgy union slush funds."
Norrington however exquisitely dissects the illogicality of the TURC decision to prosecute Melhem but not Shorten. He devotes the best part of a chapter to the TURC's decision:
"By this stage (November 2015) the TURC was suffering a credibility problem, exacerbated by Heydon's decision to accept, then turn down an invitation to address a Liberal Party fundraiser. The standing of Heydon's Commission was weakened. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the debacle over the Liberal fundraiser contributed to Stoljar, and later Heydon, pulling back from pursuing Shorten.."
Norrington sets out Shorten's involvement in each of the matters in which his 2IC was recommended for charges:
"Melhem was referred to the Victorian DPP for 8 possible offences, 3 of soliciting a "secret commission" and 5 of "false accounting. He also referred the AWU organisation to police and to the Fair Work Commission...
"These serious findings against Melhem raise an obvious question: what was Shorten doing all the time he was in charge of his Victorian AWU branch, with so many alleged criminal and civil offences occurring on his watch?"
"In sworn evidence to the TURC Stephen SASSE (Thiess/John Holland) said Shorten was centrally involved in 2004 with ......the Eastlink road project. The agreement inclued the consortium undertaking to pay Shorten's union $300,000 over the 3 years of the project. SASSE said under oath that Shorten, in late 2004, proposed that the consortium pay....
"Julian Rzesniowiecki, the HR manager, told the royal commission that negotiations over the $300K side deal were conducted with Shorten...."
Norrington describes Shorten's other allegedly criminal behaviour sheeted home to Melhem.
This apparent immunity is deeply troubling.
Shorten's presence in the Parliament is a daily reminder. Turnbull's on-again, off-again matey-ness with Shorten even moreso.
It won't be fixed by magical new legislation, press conferences and posters.
Shorten walked because the TURC folded to his high power lawyer Leon Zwier from Arnold Bloch Leibler who demanded and was given a statement on 6 November 2015 from Stoljar stating, "There is no submission that Mr Shorten may have engaged in any criminal or unlawful conduct".
That left little wriggle room for the Commissioner in his final report.
There certainly was such a submission from me involving Shorten's apparent criminal acts. There still is.
The CFMEU/Daniels Government's new Solicitor for Public Prosecutions is John Cain Jr, the same John Cain who hand wrote a letter to the Commonwealth Bank co-signed by Bruce Wilson - claiming the AWU had "no interest" in about $180,000 Wilson had apparently extracted from various employers (including one cheque for $20,160 made out to the AWU Workplace Reform Association).
Victoria now apparently intends to take no action over the AWU Scandal, notwithstanding the clear cut criminality involving payments from Thiess to the Wilson/Gillard slush fund over the Melbourne Water contract (note Ralph Blewitt has not been charged with offences arising from the 7 Melbourne Water related invoices).
Senator Kimberley Kitching was referred by the TURC for prosecution. The CFMEU/Andrews Government had sufficient certainty she would not be prosecuted to recommend her to fill a Senate vacancy. What do they know that we don't.
If Turnbull's going to politicise his new legislation by focussing it on his political opponent, he could at least do us the courtesy of getting his facts straight.
Just like Gillard , Shorten is the beneficiary of a political climate that protects its own.
Craig Thomson's slap on the wrist for the most serious contempt of the Parliament and the people in Australia's history sets the tone and tells us all we need to know.
Turnbull's union legislation won't change that.
During the course of today I'll analyse the new corruption benefits legislation - what it will and won't do.
I'll also talk to you about Turnbull's history and equivocal statements about unions - sometimes he thinks they're terrific, but when it suits him he doesn't.
And finally one important point I think Turnbull is completely blind to.
When we hear report after report about union corruption, when we see CFMEU thugs act with impunity, when we pay triple what we should for government funded building projects we don't need to hear any more crap from the Government stating the bleeding obvious.
We know unions are corrupt, the CFMEU completely.
So why is the racketeering influenced corrupt organisation still there running its enforcement scams day in, day out?
Piecemeal legislation "outlawing" payments isn't going to fix that.
The CFMEU's conduct is clearly already criminal - yet our governments let them get away with it.
Get rid of them.
Turnbull and Michaelia Cash are out of their depth.