the wheels of justice turn slowly but surely still...Julia better get a good lawyer
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THE royal commission into union wrongdoing is alerting Julia Gillard and her one-time boyfriend, disgraced union boss Bruce Wilson, that its hearings will start next week with evidence from a corrupt former AWU official who has confessed to fraud involving a slush fund set up after legal advice from the former prime minister.
Notifications are going out to parties who may be adversely mentioned in evidence from Ralph Blewitt, who returned to Australia from his home in Malaysia this week to help the royal commission and an ongoing fraud investigation by Victoria Police.
The notifications are being made by the commission’s lawyers to ensure that people have the chance to seek to be legally represented at public hearings.
The Australian can reveal that Mr Blewitt intends to tell retired High Court judge Dyson Heydon’s royal commission about his role in a criminal fraud in the 1990s. He will give evidence of how he and his then boss, Mr Wilson, allegedly siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from a building company to the union slush fund, the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.
The Australian revealed online yesterday that Mr Blewitt would be the newly established royal commission’s first witness. He first confessed his dishonesty with the slush fund in interviews with The Australian in 2012. This led to revelations about the fund from further disclosures and documents including several released by a former partner of the law firm Slater & Gordon, Nick Styant-Browne, who was Ms Gillard’s colleague in the 1990s.
The royal commission’s chief executive, Jane Fitzgerald, confirmed in a brief statement that the opening hearing on Monday would “deal with matters associated with the Workplace Reform Association”, which is covered by the terms of reference agreed by Attorney-General George Brandis.
“Next week’s hearing has been necessitated by the return to Australia of a person associated with the Workplace Reform Association,’’ Ms Fitzgerald said.
She said further hearings on the matter might take place at a later date and that “any person or institution who believes they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the hearing” may apply in writing to appear at the commission.
Revelations about the Workplace Reform Association have dogged the former prime minister, who provided legal advice as a solicitor at Slater & Gordon to help establish the slush fund for Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt in the early 1990s. Ms Gillard and Mr Wilson have repeatedly and strenuously denied wrongdoing.
Mr Blewitt’s Melbourne-based solicitor, Bob Galbally, said: “Ralph is prepared to incriminate himself and reveal all. I have been told that he will be in the witness box for a day or two.”
Mr Galbally said he was unsure whether Victoria Police detectives, who intend to conduct a further interview with Mr Blewitt today or tomorrow, have provided their evidence of the fraud to which he has confessed to the royal commission.
Harry Nowicki, a legal associate and confidant of Mr Blewitt who has been researching the case for two years, said: “He is looking forward to giving his evidence. Ralph has come back to give his evidence because he has nothing to hide. He will be a witness of truth.”
Mr Blewitt, 69, who was a state secretary of the Australian Workers Union and an ally of Mr Wilson, has told of burying wads of ill-gotten cash in the backyard of his home. He has claimed that money was taken from the slush fund to pay for renovations at Ms Gillard’s home, and to buy a terrace house in Melbourne where Mr Wilson would live. The former prime minister has insisted that she paid for the renovations at her home.
Victoria Police detectives who have been running an 18-month investigation with Mr Blewitt’s co-operation, intend to charge him with fraud-related offences, to which he will plead guilty. He is expected to give evidence against others. It is understood that in return for his co-operation and guilty plea, police will make courtroom submissions that Mr Blewitt should not be sentenced to jail.
Mr Blewitt’s travel expenses for his current visit to Australia are being met by a private citizen who has wanted to see the slush fund issues properly investigated by police and the royal commission.
In his most recent interview with The Australian, Mr Blewitt said: “I was a criminal when I was in the AWU and I’ve put my hand up for it. I’ve confessed to being a partner in the AWU slush fund. I’ve said it was a fraud and I don’t step away from any of it. Of course I’m guilty.”
Police led by Detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell have used a search warrant to seize more than 350 documents from Slater & Gordon, and travelled across Australia to take statements from numerous witnesses.
Police have told Victoria’s chief magistrate, Peter Lauritsen, they are investigating four types of offence in relation to “Wilson, Blewitt and others”: obtaining property by deception; receiving secret commissions; making and using false documents; and conspiracy to cheat and defraud.
In 2012, Ms Gillard attacked Mr Blewitt, who was once her client, as a complete idiot, a stooge, imbecile and sexist pig. The former salaried partner of Slater & Gordon has insisted that she did not know that the AWU Workplace Reform Association, which she told her legal partners in a confidential interview was really a “slush fund” for union elections, would be used as a vehicle for a fraud.