The ACTU has decided not to go ahead with a federal court application regarding claims of apprehended bias against commissioner Dyson Heydon, who is overseeing the trade union royal commission.
The unions had called for Heydon to disqualify himself from heading the royal commission after he agreed to deliver the Sir Garfield Barwick address, which was a fundraiser for the Liberal party.
However Heydon dismissed the union applications and defended his impartiality in a 67-page decision. At the time, the unions left the way open to take the matter to the federal court.
The commission concludes on 31 December this year and it is understood that unions judged that any application to the courts would take longer than the life of the commission.
The national secretary of the ACTU, Dave Oliver, said the whole commission, as well as the commissioner, was biased and again called on the government to end the investigation.
“Commissioner Heydon sat in judgment on himself and found in his own favour and just this week media reports confirmed the commission gave special treatment to disgraced former union official Kathy Jackson who has been found by the courts to have stolen around $1.4m from members,” Oliver said.
“This is a political process, not a legal process and we will treat it as such.”
Four people have so far been arrested as a result of the $60m commission’s investigations.
