Make a Difference

Gillard, Wilson and Union Funds

Quadrant Magazine has posted a transcript of an important 2GB radio interview between Alan Jones and Michael Smith.

A few paragraphs:

 Jones: Cambridge has been calling on the one hand for a Royal Commission but then is appointed (to FWA). He was the author of the affidavit when McClelland was the solicitor. Cambridge is now in the union controlled Fair Work Australia, which has delayed the investigation into Thomson and, as I understand it, he has not pursued the Wilson-Gillard matter since.  

Smith: That is true. He swore an affidavit with penalty of perjury if falsely sworn. You read it; read what he said about Slater & Gordon, and its role and Ms Gillard was a partner who was involved in this position where she had a conflict of interest having a sexual relationship with the man who headed up her client, the AWU, that was undisclosed to her partners. The Law Council would have a view about the appropriateness of that.  

Jones: Did she, as a lawyer, set up accounts into which extorted funds were diverted? This union heavy was going around saying: I want this money, 25 thousand from you and 30 thousand from you in order to get work done. This was 20 years ago, and that money was shoved into another account the AWU would not know about. Did she set up those accounts?  

Smith: I know that her handwriting is present. I have had that analysed by the country’s pre-eminent forensic handwriting analyst, Paul Westwood. He is the same guy who helped me out on the Craig Thomson matter, who analysed the hand-writing on the credit card chits, the signature.  

I am a layman. I can look at her handwriting, I have a copy here and the handwriting on that form. It is identical. But the forensic analyst tells me it is in all likelihood, balance of probabilities, written by the same person, by her.  

Jones: The accounts set up that she as a lawyer opened at the direction of Wilson and Blewitt have been described by an AWU executive as unauthorized, invalid, irregular and used for quote, possibly illegal purposes. There were 13 of them.  

Smith: Yes, a large number of accounts were set up. Wilson was given the flick from the AWU when the accounts that were established in Melbourne were discovered and he was allowed to leave the union, and in fact got redundancy payments. The money was paid back to the organisations that had paid the money into those accounts, in Melbourne. Julia Gillard was questioned in Melbourne and said: I have done nothing wrong. At that point the account she had set up in 1992 in Perth had not been discovered. It was discovered later, after he had left the union and after she had made the public protestation that she did nothing wrong. She had a duty as a lawyer acting for the AWU, upon a report to her law firm that fraud had been discovered, she had a duty to assist her client to find the location of any further monies that might be owing to it, including her knowledge, the fact that a cheque drawn on the association she had set up, had been used to buy a house for a person, not for the union, and she said nothing. This was in March 1993. Slater & Gordon were involved in the purchase of this property at 85 Kerr St, Fitzroy, and money that Thiess Contractors paid was used to pay for the property. Wilson’s signature was on the cheque …

Jones: A final comment: Julia has said previously when questioned that she was young and naïve, and she was terribly distressed when she found out what the boyfriend Wilson had been up to. Would that be Wilson’s account of things?  

Smith: (laughs loudly), Alan, no.  

Jones: According to her, Wilson was concealing it all from her.  

Smith: Yeah (laughs). Bruce Wilson lives in a coastal town, he goes to work in a very old car, he is working in the kitchen at a registered club, he works shifts there cooking meals. He looks at Tim Mathieson and Julia Gillard getting on the plane and thinks to himself about what he knows. What if he was approached by the authorities? What would he have to say under oath? His account is very different from hers. And look Alan, you just add this up, the weight of Cambridge’s affidavit, what Ludwig has to say, what his offsider Blewitt has to say, and all the documents, all the bank statements, all the handwriting analyses, put that on one side of the scale, on the other side of the scale put this statement: “I did nothing wrong, I was young and naïve.”

Was Julia Gillard dishonest; an accessory or active participant in the theft of union funds? Or is she simply incompetent?

Tough choice.

1 Comment

  1. Peter Davies

    It seems that BOTH may be true – let’s examine a few details.

    The idea that she (Law firm partner) was not fully aware of the events transpiring at the time? That the leader who always has the right turn of phrase at her disposal, now portrays herself as an innocent wallflower bystander? (trampled by all those “bad men” no doubt)

    Fairly-land! Surely the public are not SO stupid as to believe such concoctions?

    A partner (not the receptionist) in a law firm having a sexual relationship with “the other side’s chief”? That adds a whole new complexion to the term “Law Partner”.

    That pseudo innocent pretense of ignorance? Old misdeeds unleash their own retribution.

    Let us reflect, because of Labor’s recent legislation changes, dads falsely accused in the family court do NOT have any “presumption of innocence” (or require ANY evidence produced to corroborate such accusations). However embezzlers of public funds – where there IS substantial evidence Craig Thompson (and now this) need that presumption?

    That’s a better, fairer Australia Labor is creating? No thanks.

    It isn’t too harsh to call her competence into question and the evidence against mounts every week.

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