Former Labor minister and ACTU official Martin Ferguson has validated the Abbott government’s trade union royal commission, breaking ranks with Labor’s repeated characterisation of the process as a political “witch hunt.”
Ferguson told the ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday night the royal commission was doing important work.
“I just don’t see the royal commission as a political play thing, I actually think it’s potentially, um, going to be very important in reforming the trade union movement and the Labor party – and I will not damn it,” he said.
Ferguson’s comments in a program revisiting the trade union past of the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, came as the commissioner heading up the inquiry, the former high court justice Dyson Heydon, delayed a decision about whether or not he will disqualify himself from the current inquiry into union corruption.
Heydon’s stewardship of the commission ran into significant controversy after it was revealed a fortnight ago that he planned to speak at a Liberal party fundraiser, the Sir Garfield Barwick lecture. Heydon was expected to rule on his future at the commission on Tuesday, but instead delayed the decision.
The Four Corners program broadcast on Monday evening went back over some of the material that was canvassed during Shorten’s appearance at the royal commission in July.
The Labor leader was grilled in the witness box about his conduct while Australian Workers Union national secretary.
The questioning from counsel-assisting the inquiry covered the efficacy of various workplace agreements covering workers on Victoria’s East West Link project and at Chiquita Mushrooms; and also the practice of various companies making payments to the AWU.
The ABC program interviewed a couple of former Chiquita workers who said they were unaware the AWU was collecting $4,000 a month from the company while simultaneously negotiating on behalf of the workforce.
One of the workers, Josie Hodsgon, who lost her job at Chiquita, told Four Corners the AWU had failed the workforce during the negotiations. “It was terrible. Was terrible for all the workers,” she said.
Shorten’s colleague at the AWU, Cesar Melhem was asked by the program whether the AWU had issued “bogus” invoices to Thiess, the developers of the East West Link.
The company paid the AWU $300,000, and Shorten faced questions about the validity of AWU invoices to the company when he appeared before the royal commission in July.
During his appearance, Shorten said he would not have been a party to “bogus” invoicing – and he said Melhem had day-to-day responsibility for that particular project.
Melhem told Four Corners on Monday night: “There’s no allegation by the commission or anyone [that] there – there’s brown paper bags paying to union officials or AWU officials.”
“Ah yes, there was money was paid to the union as an organisation, which went to its members not to union officials ... you’ll find all these invoices described what services was provided to East Link and because of the proceeding in the royal commission I, I will not sort of go any deeper ... in explaining that apart from what I just said,” Melhem said.
Pressed on whether the invoices were bogus Melhem said: “Ah look I think the – the answer was given by Bill and that was that was the correct answer and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Melhem went from the AWU to a seat in the Victorian parliament. In June he stood down as party whip, arguing the questions being posed at the royal commission were a distraction for the Victorian government.
But Melhem told Four Corners: “I’ll be back.”
Asked whether he was a “fall guy” in the royal commission process, Melhem said he hoped not.
“But look, if ... I’m going to be the sacrificial lamb and save everyone else, well so be it, but I don’t believe so,” he said.
Ferguson’s comments to Four Corners about the validity of the trade union royal commission will reignite controversy within the Labor party and the labour movement about his forthright public interventions.
The former minister recently avoided expulsion from the ALP after a complaint lodged by union officials about his conduct during the New South Wales state election.
During the NSW campaign, Ferguson publicly endorsed the privatisation of electricity poles and wires and criticised state Labor leader Luke Foley’s campaign against it. The recent ALP conference passed a motion condemning Ferguson for his comments in the NSW poll.
Ferguson made broader remarks in the Four Corners interview about union influence within the ALP. He said the party was reluctant to embrace reform because there were too many institutional losers, and many MPs maintained their strong union ties.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, specifically referenced Ferguson’s comments while seeking to defend the commission’s integrity in a separate interview with ABC Radio National on Monday evening.
“Martin Ferguson was an ACTU president,” Abbott told listeners, after reading out one of the relevant quotes.
Abbott dismissed calls for the government to shut down the royal commission, saying Heydon was carefully considering the union submissions because he was a man of the utmost integrity.
The prime minister accused Labor and the unions of trying to cover up rorts by questioning Heydon’s impartiality. “The attack is not on Dyson Heydon; the attack is on the royal commission,” Abbott said.
