Julia Gillard accused: “questionable” lawyering and “sham” payments
Julia Gillard: No crime over alleged corrupt slush fund — inquiry
Mr Stoljar reports that some aspects of Ms Gillard’s professional conduct as a solicitor “appear questionable” and that she likely did receive money from Mr Wilson for her home renovations
The submission by the counsel assisting the royal commission in a nutshell:
JULIA Gillard received money from her corrupt union boyfriend’s “sham” fund to pay for renovations on her Melbourne house in the 1990s, and she could have helped prevent criminal behaviour if she had acted with more “rigour” as a solicitor — but she was not involved in any criminal conduct.
And more to come:
It is still possible that it is not the end of the affair for Ms Gillard if Victoria Police, who have an open investigation into alleged corruption by Mr Wilson, decide to pursue the former prime minister about whether or not payments were made by her then boyfriend for her home renovations, and what she might have known about them.
In fact, the more you read into Jeremy Stoljar’s submission, the uglier it looks for the former Prime Minister:
- Lastly, for the reasons set out above the Commission should find that Ms Gillard was the beneficiary or recipient of certain funds from [then boyfriend and corrupt union official Bruce] Wilson, consistent with the evidence of [builder Athol] James and [then AWU official Wayne] Hem. It is not possible to identify after all this time the precise source of the funds, since Mr Wilson seems to have drawn cash from the accounts operated in Victoria as well as from the Association’s account. The skimpy nature of the available evidence does not make it possible to infer on the balance of probabilities that Ms Gillard was aware that she had received the $5,000 which Mr Hem put into her bank account on Mr Wilson’s instructions.
But she was aware of facts, had she turned her mind to them, which would have indicated that the source of the wads of bank notes cannot have been the low union salary of Mr Wilson of about $50,000 – a man who was supporting his family in Perth, his own household in Melbourne, and his relationship with Ms Gillard in Melbourne, and who was not shown to have had any income from property exceeding the cost of mortgage repayments – but must have been some fund he did not own but did control. That is, she must have been aware of facts, which had she turned her mind to them, would have revealed that Mr Wilson was making payments to her in breach of some fiduciary duty.
Hedley Thomas:
JULIA Gillard will be very unhappy at how her conduct in the AWU slush fund scandal is viewed by the union corruption inquiry’s senior counsel, Jeremy Stoljar SC.Did she receive cash for her home renovation? Stoljar prefers the evidence of Gillard’s builder, Athol James, an elderly man who spoke of seeing a “large amount of cash” and a “wad of notes” being handed to the future PM by her corrupt boyfriend, union boss Bruce Wilson, to pay for a home reno.
Gillard flatly rejected these claims when she had her turn in the witness box. She could not have been more emphatic. It was “not true”, she insisted. Stoljar, however, believes that James’s memory was “clear and accurate"…
Stoljar also distinguishes the evidence of a former AWU staffer, Wayne Hem, who said he put the $5000 into Gillard’s account at Wilson’s direction.
Stoljar’s view that the commission should find “Gillard was the beneficiary or recipient of certain funds from Mr Wilson, consistent with the evidence of Mr James and Mr Hem” is a big credibility blow.
Stoljar says it cannot be shown that Gillard knew she got the $5000 in her account. But he wants the inquiry’s head, retired High Court judge Dyson Heydon QC, to find that Gillard was aware of facts which should have alarmed her — “wads of bank notes” brandished by Wilson, who could not have earned the money legitimately on his $50,000 union salary.
Another sting in Stoljar’s submission revolves around Gillard’s remarkably loose lawyering, which was instrumental in allowing the fraud to put down roots.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/andrewbolt/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/julia_gillard_a...
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