Royal commission into union corruption: Ralph Blewitt gives evidence over AWU slush fund that dogged Julia Gillard
Self-confessed union bagman Ralph Blewitt has told the royal commission into union corruption that he used $90,000 of AWU members' money to buy a Melbourne home.
Day one of the commission, presided over by former High Court judge Dyson Heydon in Sydney, is probing the slush fund scandal that dogged former prime minister Julia Gillard.
The Abbott Government has given Mr Heydon the task of investigating union slush funds and one in particular set up more than 20 years ago by Mr Blewitt and fellow AWU official at the time Bruce Wilson, who was also Ms Gillard's boyfriend.
Mr Blewitt says he and his then boss Mr Wilson established the AWU Workplace Reform Association primarily to raise funds for union elections.
Mr Wilson wanted to keep the association confidential and at arms length from himself, Mr Blewitt said.
"I did as instructed by Mr Wilson," he said.
"The whole thing was kept completely secret from anybody else."
Mr Blewitt and Mr Wilson are both accused of being behind a fraud in which hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers were paid into the slush fund and then siphoned off.
Mr Blewitt told the commission today that funds linked to the slush fund were used to pay a 10 per cent deposit for a $230,000 property bought in Victoria in 1993.
He said despite the property being purchased in his name he did not attend the auction, saying Mr Wilson and Ms Gillard attended the auction.
This C&P is so easy B1G, but I do believe my source (ABC) is somewhat more credible than the : Independant Australia. (Independant of balance?)
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