Law firm presses Australian Workers Union on privilege | The Australian
THE most powerful union in Australia, the Australian Workers Union, is being asked by its former law firm Slater & Gordon for permission to lift a legal lid on highly sensitive files on a union funds scandal that subsequently embroiled Julia Gillard...
The Weekend Australian can reveal that Slater & Gordon is also contacting Ms Gillard’s former boyfriend and client Bruce Wilson - the allegedly corrupt leader of the scam, who was the AWU’s Victoria branch head - to ask him to waive his right to legal privilege…
In a statement last night, the managing director of Slater & Gordon, Andrew Grech, said: “..."We ... have taken these steps in the hope that we can respond to false and ill-conceived allegations that have been made against Slater & Gordon."…
The decision yesterday of Slater & Gordon has the potential to shed light on all of the evidence in a scandal that led to the the AWU’s then national head, Ian Cambridge, to urge the then federal Labor government to hold a royal commission into what he suspected was rampant union corruption.
Most of the funds that allegedly went missing had been paid into an entity, the AWU Workplace Reform Association, by large construction companies.
Ms Gillard, as a solicitor at the time for Slater & Gordon lawyers which acted for Mr Wilson, Mr Blewitt and the AWU, did legal work related to the establishment of the association in Western Australia. At the time, Mr Wilson and the Prime Minister were in a close relationship. Ms Gillard has repeatedly and strenuously denied that she had any knowledge of what the association was going to be used for, and has also denied receiving any benefit....
Mr Blewitt is the former legal owner of a house in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Fitzroy that was used and legally controlled by Mr Wilson, and allegedly bought with misappropriated AWU funds in a transaction handled and part-financed by Slater & Gordon..
Mr Cambridge stated in an affidavit in the Industrial Relations Court in 1996 that he was “unable to understand how Slater and Gordon, who were then acting for the Victoria Branch of the Union, could have permitted the use of funds which were obviously taken from the union, in the purchase of private property of this nature, without seeking and obtaining proper authority from the union”.
THE most powerful union in Australia, the Australian Workers Union, is being asked by its former law firm Slater & Gordon for permission to lift a legal lid on highly sensitive files on a union funds scandal that subsequently embroiled Julia Gillard...
The Weekend Australian can reveal that Slater & Gordon is also contacting Ms Gillard’s former boyfriend and client Bruce Wilson - the allegedly corrupt leader of the scam, who was the AWU’s Victoria branch head - to ask him to waive his right to legal privilege…
In a statement last night, the managing director of Slater & Gordon, Andrew Grech, said: “..."We ... have taken these steps in the hope that we can respond to false and ill-conceived allegations that have been made against Slater & Gordon."…
The decision yesterday of Slater & Gordon has the potential to shed light on all of the evidence in a scandal that led to the the AWU’s then national head, Ian Cambridge, to urge the then federal Labor government to hold a royal commission into what he suspected was rampant union corruption.
Most of the funds that allegedly went missing had been paid into an entity, the AWU Workplace Reform Association, by large construction companies.
Ms Gillard, as a solicitor at the time for Slater & Gordon lawyers which acted for Mr Wilson, Mr Blewitt and the AWU, did legal work related to the establishment of the association in Western Australia. At the time, Mr Wilson and the Prime Minister were in a close relationship. Ms Gillard has repeatedly and strenuously denied that she had any knowledge of what the association was going to be used for, and has also denied receiving any benefit....
Mr Blewitt is the former legal owner of a house in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Fitzroy that was used and legally controlled by Mr Wilson, and allegedly bought with misappropriated AWU funds in a transaction handled and part-financed by Slater & Gordon..
Mr Cambridge stated in an affidavit in the Industrial Relations Court in 1996 that he was “unable to understand how Slater and Gordon, who were then acting for the Victoria Branch of the Union, could have permitted the use of funds which were obviously taken from the union, in the purchase of private property of this nature, without seeking and obtaining proper authority from the union”.
