Gillard gave 'false representation' to commission: Abbott
Updated 29 November 2012, 9:57 AEST
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the release of a transcript dating from Julia Gillard's time as a lawyer in the 1990s "appears" to show a "breach of the law".
More of the transcript of the 1995 interview between Ms Gillard and her then-employers at the law firm Slater & Gordon has emerged in News Limited and Fairfax newspapers this morning.
It reveals Ms Gillard wrote to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission to argue against a decision to bar the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association because of its "trade union" status.The transcript of the interview was handed to the paper by former Slater & Gordon partner Nick Styant-Browne.
Ms Gillard has previously said she played only a limited role in setting up the fund for her then-boyfriend, Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson.
The slush fund was supposed to be used for the re-election of union officials, but Mr Wilson and union bagman Ralph Blewitt have been accused of misappropriating thousands of dollars from the fund.
This morning Mr Abbott said the transcript "demonstrates that the Prime Minister made fraudulent representations to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission".
"This is serious to make false representation to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission," he added.
He said "that would appear to be in breach of the law" but did not explain why.
"These are very, very serious matters and I think the Labor Party should be searching its soul today, asking itself how has it fallen this low, to have its own leader so dreadfully, dreadfully compromised," Mr Abbott continued.
Later manager of Opposition business Christopher Pyne said he believed Ms Gillard's position was now "entirely untenable".
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Ms Gillard had no further comment to make, other than standing by her previous statements in which she has denied any wrongdoing.
In the transcript, Ms Gillard says Slater & Gordon did not have anything to do with setting up the fund, and that she had nothing to do with the association after it was incorporated.
In the section of the transcript released by The Australian, Slater & Gordon partner Peter Gordon asked: "Do you recall whether, when it was necessary to argue the case with the, with the relevant Western Australian authority, whether you consulted anyone else in the firm as to what would or would not get, become acceptable or appropriate?".
To which Ms Gillard replied "I once again don't recall talking to anybody else in the firm about it".
TRANSCRIPT:
TONY EASTLEY: Previously censored excerpts of an interview that Julia Gillard gave to the law firm Slater and Gordon in 1995 have been released this morning.
They show that the Prime Minister did write to the West Australian Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in 1992 challenging an initial decision to bar the Australian Workers Union (AWU) *Workplace Reform Association from incorporation.
Joining us now is chief political correspondent Sabra Lane to shine some light on this.
Sabra, what's this transcript that we're talking about?
SABRA LANE: It's an extract of an interview between Peter Gordon, the former senior partner of Slater and Gordon, and Julia Gillard. It was conducted in September 1995 and it was done specifically about this AWU Workplace Reform Association.
Parts of this transcript have been available for months now but this particular part was only released last night.
TONY EASTLEY: And the Prime Minister in an earlier life worked with Slater and Gordon. So who has this transcript at the moment?
SABRA LANE: Well Nick Styant-Browne, a former partner of Slater and Gordon, has the transcript. He now resides in the United States.
He's previously believed that this particular part of the interview shouldn't be in the public arena because it breached legal professional privilege. But he says given that the Prime Minister's former partner, her former boyfriend Bruce Wilson, talked about the advice he specifically received from Slater and Gordon in an interview he did with 7.30 on Tuesday night, that Styant-Browne now believed that given that was out in the public arena, that this particular extract of the interview should also now be publicly released.
TONY EASTLEY: And this public extract deals with the West Australian Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in 1992 and the challenge of an initial decision to bar the incorporation of that union organisation.
SABRA LANE: That's right. And the Opposition argues that this is particularly significant, saying that only as recently as Monday this week the Prime Minister was specifically asked about this point in Parliament. Julie Bishop asked her: didn't the West Australian Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in fact raise concerns about the incorporation of this particular association prior to its incorporation.
And we now know from this transcript that a letter was written back to the commissioner vouching for the association, saying that it complied with all legal requirements.
Yet on Monday the Prime Minister said that no correspondence had been produced so she specifically avoided answering questions about this in Parliament.
So this newly released transcript indicates that the WA commissioner did indeed have concerns about the eligibility of this association.
Now the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he believes this correspondence is significant.
TONY ABBOTT: It demonstrates that the Prime Minister made false representations to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission. This is obviously a very serious matter. For a lawyer, for a law partner to make false representations to the Corporate Affairs Commission, well, that would appear to be in breach of the law.
Now this has ramifications down to this day because fraud didn't stop after the AWU scandal. We have ongoing fraud inside the union movement, the Health Services Union, fraud for instance which involved one of Prime Minister Gillard's own MPs, the former national president of the Labor Party, Mr Williamson - someone who is one of the key faceless men behind installing the Prime Minister.
A government can't clean up union fraud if some of its senior members, some of its very, very senior members have been involved in it and this is why this is a very serious ongoing matter.
JOURNALIST: Would you say that the Prime Minister's position is now untenable given this revelation today?
TONY ABBOTT: This has always been about the judgement, the character, the integrity of the Prime Minister, the fitness for office of the Prime Minister. And plainly a Prime Minister who gave false information to the Corporate Affairs Commission, a Prime Minister who ran a protection racket for a Member of Parliament who has clearly been involved in the most appalling rip-off of low paid union members' money - these are very, very serious matters and I think the Labor Party should be searching its soul today.
TONY EASTLEY: The Opposition Leader Tony Abbott with journalists at Parliament House this morning.
Sabra Lane is with us. Sabra, Mr Abbott's not the only one from the Opposition talking about this this morning I understand.
SABRA LANE: No, that's right. The Opposition's manager of business Christopher Pyne says the ramifications are strong. He says the Prime Minister should in fact resign today.
TONY EASTLEY: That's probably not surprising. But Sabra has there been any response from the Prime Minister to all these claims this morning?
SABRA LANE: The Prime Minister's office says Julia Gillard has maintained all the way along and that's not changed today that she has done absolutely nothing wrong here.
And I guess Tony the other part that the Government will be pointing to today is another part of the interview extract that we haven't talked about today that has also been released.
Peter Gordon also asked the Prime Minister: "I should ask, did we," meaning the law firm, "have anything to do with the setting of the accounts or was that done by officers of the incorporated association?"
Julia Gillard responded: "Slater and Gordon didn't have anything, did not have anything to do with the setting up of bank accounts for that association. We attended to the incorporation."
He then goes on to say: "Can I ask you then the following, the last thing that we did to setting up the incorporation which appears to be from the file, the letter arguing that it ought be not construed as a trade union - did you have anything personally to do with that incorporated association afterwards?"
Julia Gillard responds: "No I did not."
TONY EASTLEY: Our chief political correspondent Sabra Lane, and the last sitting day in Canberra today.
*EDITOR'S NOTE (29/11/2012): This transcript has been amended to correct an error in the name of the organisation made in the original broadcast.
Gillard gave 'false representation' to commission: Abbott | ABC Radio Australia:
Live blog: Opposition ramps up attacks on Gillard
Updated 29 November 2012, 10:45 AEST
The Federal Opposition has dramatically escalated its attack on Prime Minister Julia Gillard, saying new details of the slush fund affair mean her position is untenable and she should resign.
Here are the key points this morning:- Julia Gillard helped establish the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) Workplace Reform Association while working as a lawyer for Slater & Gordon in the early 1990s.
- The PM says she believed the fund would be used for legitimate purposes, but it was later used as a union slush fund by her then-boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson.
- Newly released transcripts from Slater & Gordon show Ms Gillard wrote to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission to argue for the association's incorporation in WA, rejecting concerns it was "ineligible" because it might be a trade union.
- Asked in Parliament on Monday whether she had written to the WA Commissioner for Corporate Affairs to vouch for the association's legitimacy, Ms Gillard replied: "The claim has been made but no correspondence has ever been produced."
Follow developments on this final day of the parliamentary sitting year with our live blog. (All times AEDT).
10:43am: Even though it's the last sitting day of the year - and that usually brings a degree of goodwill between otherwise warring parties - this year looks like ending on an acrimonious note.
We thought it'd be worth looking back at how the 2011 parliamentary year ended.
It was the day Harry Jenkins resigned as Speaker, and Peter Slipper defected from the Coalition to take up the role.
While the move helped boost Labor's numbers on the floor of the house, it didn't end well, as we now know only too well.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-11-29/live-blog-opposition-ramps-up-attacks-on-gillard/1053366
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