Bill Shorten had another bruising day at the royal commission into trade union corruption, exacerbated by calls for his resignation by a former Labor Party national secretary.
Bob Hogg's comments followed Shorten's admission on Wednesday that he failed to disclose a A$40,000 ($44,700) donation to his 2007 parliamentary campaign from a company with which his union was negotiating a workplace agreement - until Monday this week.
The resignation call was dismissed by Shorten allies, who noted that Hogg was placed on a good behaviour bond in 1991 for failing to disclose political donations totalling almost A$143,000. However, it reflected mounting concerns within the party about the damage being done to Shorten's image, with the royal commissioner, former High Court Judge Dyson Heydon, yesterday voicing concern about the Opposition Leader's "credibility as a witness".
During his second day of testimony, Shorten - a former Victorian and national leader of the powerful Australian Workers Union - was questioned about a workplace deal struck with a major construction company, Thiess John Holland, which was building Melbourne's A$2.5 billion East Link tollway. Following the deal in 2005 - which cut workers' conditions, saving the company up to A$100 million - Thiess paid the AWU A$300,000. The union billed it for health and safety training and staff dinner dances - invoices which Jeremy Stoljar, SC, assisting the commission, suggested were "bogus". Shorten replied: "I would never be party to issuing bogus invoices ..."
Heydon's interjection followed a series of long and convoluted responses by Shorten to questions from Stoljar. The commissioner said although he understood Shorten wished to rebut recent media criticism of his trade union leadership record, "what am I concerned about more is your credibility as a witness".
