Thank You – Giving thanks for the Interim Commissioner’s report into Trade Unions
Last Friday there must have been a lot of thankful people dishing out a lot of thank you messages.
Last Friday Commissioner John Dyson
Heydon handed over his Interim Report regarding the Trade Union Royal
Commission, the report can be read in full on my HSU resources page.
The report was originally due later in
January but was released earlier for reasons that many have speculated
on. But it is fair to say it was released on a day that shows that the
government thought this Royal Commission had been a failed exercise, why
else dump it out there on the Friday before Xmas?
The most thankful of all would be Kathy
Jackson whose appearance and testimony at the Royal Commission caused
more headlines and front page news stories than any other witness what
with charity shags and claims of ambush. In fact the only witness that received more attention on the day they appeared was former Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the day she was shown at long last to be completely clean, even in the eyes of a right-wing witch hunt like this Commission.
Jackson would be thankful that she has been completely ignored by the Commissioners report. Not even the $250K she took from cancer workers and
threw in a personal bank account to go on a wild spending spree. The
account that was disguised to look legitimate in the HSU books and then
when discovered attempted to be passed off as a slush fund.
Not only did Jackson go on a wild
spending spree but she shared the love and the loot around with
accomplices giving huge sums of money to her ex-husband Jeff and also a chunk in an envelope to her factional ally and standover man Marco Bolano, apparently so he could use the money to illegally fund his own union election campaign.
Still, Commissioner Heydon must have
been asleep at the wheel on those days as it didn’t rate a real mention
only one passing reference. Commissioner Heydon must have also missed
that section of his Counsel Assisting’s report, the one that recommended
Jackson be referred to the Department Of Prosecution for criminal investigation.
Also thankful would be Attorney General
George Brandis and Senator Eric Abetz for saving them the embarrassment
of their Royal Commission pointing out their star witness as the most
corrupt person appearing before the Commission if the allegations are
proven true. Even based on those allegations she has admitted to under
oath during the parts that the Commissioner must have slept through
there has been no other witness appear that has personally acquired such
vast sums of money from their union without the members knowledge, let
alone blessing.
Colonel Klink and Shultz – They see and hear nothing relating to Jackson
In fact, there must be a truckload of
Coalition MP’s, including Abbott himself, going “phew” and silently
giving thanks that Commissioner Heydon was happy to sacrifice his own
reputation to save them the embarrassment of pointing out their
unwavering support of an admitted criminal.
However it is the union movement that
should be thankful, particularly the CFMEU who seem to have been the
most targeted in this whole taxpayer-funded charade.
The union movement should be overjoyed
that this report cannot be taken in any way seriously if its 1817 pages
have blatantly missed possibly the most corrupt official to have
appeared before the Commission. This highlights that the whole
commission has been nothing but a very expensive witch hunt done for
political purposes.
But perhaps the most thankful of all
should be the public, after all as the legal fraternity involved rack up
hundreds of thousands of billable hours, it is the public that are
footing the bill.
You may think that’s nothing to be thankful for, but at least we now know exactly what it is we are paying for.
Any doubt that this Commission was
actually about protecting member’s interests rather than a witch hunt
for political purposes has now been shown as wishful thinking.
There is only one certainty in all of
this and that is one of the items on the Royal Commission agenda was the
protection of the Coalitions golden girl Kathy Jackson.
Perhaps a hint for the media was the
departure of the Royal Commission’s Media Director Adrian Kerr
immediately after the report was released. This meant the Commission
basically dropped a bombshell and ensured it could not face media
scrutiny on it.
Kerr had been visibly uncomfortable in
his role on some of the sitting days and was particularly touchy on
matters involving the Commissions integrity. In his email to the press
regarding the release of the Commissioners report, Kerr finished off by
saying this
“This
is my final day with the Commission. Thank you all for a great
professional year on the job. I’ll keep your contact details for future
reference.”
is my final day with the Commission. Thank you all for a great
professional year on the job. I’ll keep your contact details for future
reference.”
A strange way of announcing your departure to the countries media, or perhaps strange timing is more appropriate.
Did you miss this section of my report? Counsel Assisting Stoljar asks the Commissioner
A Royal Commission is considered the
most powerful legal inquiry that this country has in its arsenal, and is
considered by many to be beyond reproach.
An inquiry of this magnitude that is
set up to expose corruption in the union movement so offenders can be
criminally prosecuted that is found to have as part of its agenda the
protection of possibly the most corrupt union official this country has
ever seen, is an inquiry that is itself corrupt to the core.
We should be thankful that at long last that the Royal Commission has shown its true colours.
A corruption inquiry that seeks to
smear the union movement and that selectively ignores allegations of
corruption on a grand scale, I have struggled hard to think of anything
that could possibly be more corrupt than that, but I have managed to
come up of just one thing.
The government that sets it up.
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