Pressure’s on Shorten
BEING someone who actually watched Bill Shorten’s appearance before the royal commission into union corruption, I found the evidence against him compelling.
Not the least of which was both a $ 40,000 donation to his 2007 electoral campaign, which he delayed declaring until a week ago, and his feeble explanation of the rip- off deal he struck in 2004 to benefit the AWU and disadvantage the actual working people who were AWU members involved in the cleaning company which financially supported Shorten with payments to his campaign manager.
In addition, the $ 300,000 deal with a construction company because the company wanted to deal with the AWU – one of Australia’s weakest unions – instead of the more powerful CFMEU who actually stand up for their members, to me, looked very dodgy.
One can see the attraction from the company’s point of view; with the AWU the company could do as they pleased with regards to enterprise agreements and safety with weak representation from AWU branch secretaries. The alarming rate of deaths at work in the construction sector really does need strong union representation on the ground with regard to strict safety measures.
The series of deals exposed in the royal commission exposes the AWU methodology of protecting their union and the company over and above their own members which is disgraceful and should be stamped out. This and other clayton’s unions should be struck off the books of the ACTU, because their inaction on behalf of their members brings the whole union movement into disrepute.
I was a member of the Australian Services Union and I found them very supportive and keen to represent my best interests.