The head of the royal commission into trade union governance and corruption, Dyson Heydon, has postponed his response to calls for him to withdraw from the inquiry.
On Friday, Heydon heard applications from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the CFMEU and the AWU seeking his recusal on the grounds of apprehended bias. Heydon indicated at the time that he hoped to announce a decision on the recusal requests on Tuesday, although he left himself room to change the timeframe.
The commission has revealed that Heydon will not be ready to determine his future on Tuesday.
“Mr Heydon is still considering his ruling, which will now not be delivered on that date,” a spokesman said.
“The royal commission will make a further statement on the timing of commissioner Heydon’s decision in due course. A public hearing scheduled for Wednesday 26 August 2015, involving the CFMEU NSW branch, has been postponed to a date to be fixed.”
The ACTU secretary, Dave Oliver, said the delay should not prevent the prime minister, Tony Abbott, from taking action in the meantime.
“The ACTU has always maintained that the prime minister must shut down his political witch hunt and stop wasting millions of dollars in taxpayer’s money,” Oliver said on Monday.
“The ACTU again calls on Tony Abbott to act immediately.”
The fate of the commission hangs in the balance because of an outcry from Labor and unions after revelations Heydon initially accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at a Liberal party fundraiser.
Lawyers for the unions argued the episode undermined public confidence in his ability to be impartial in carrying out the commission’s work.
Heydon, who pulled out of the Liberal party event earlier this month, said last week that he had “overlooked” the Liberal party connection when he was contacted by the organiser in March 2015.
He had also overlooked the fact his initial agreement in 2014 to speak at the event was conditional on the commission having completed its work, and had not read the attachments of a June 2015 email that contained an invitation and Liberal party donation information.
In a submission seeking Heydon’s recusal, the AWU’s lawyers noted the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had been questioned by the commission in July and argued “the political sensitivity of these investigations are self-evident, and they underscore the particular importance of the perceived political impartiality of the inquisitor”.
Abbott defended Heydon in parliamentary question time last week, saying the Labor party was “smearing a distinguished Australian” because it was “only interested in protecting dodgy union officials”.
“He has given distinguished service to our country and he continues to give distinguished service to our country, exposing the rorts, the rackets and the rip-offs that have been covered up for too long inside the Australian trade union movement,” Abbott said.
