AWU affair still dogging Prime Minister
The Prime Minister has returned from the East Asia summit in Cambodia and she's flying straight back into more questions about her role years ago when she was a lawyer and did some work for the Australian Workers Union. She says she is the victim of a smear campaign but the arrival of a former AWU official Ralph Blewitt in Australia to give a statement to police has kept the issue in the spotlight.
Source: AM | Duration: 4min 33sec
TONY EASTLEY: The Prime Minister, of course, has returned from the East Asia summit in Cambodia and she's flown straight back into more questions about her role years ago when she was a lawyer.
Sabra, she would have hoped I guess to have put this issue to rest once and for all.
SABRA LANE: That's right. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that she's answered all questions about this particular case. It's around the development of what she admits she shouldn't have said was a slush fund back in the mid 90s for the Australian Workers Union (AWU).
The former Australian Workers Union official Ralph Blewitt who was involved allegedly in misappropriating thousands of dollars from this fund with the former boyfriend of the Prime Minister's Bruce Wilson has returned to Australia from Malaysia.
He says he wants to clear the air over this issue and that he's sorry to fellow AWU union members.
He's preparing to talk to police tomorrow. He is scheduled for an interview. But he says he'll only give them in depth information if he is given immunity from prosecution.
Last night he spoke with a journalist who has been pursuing this case. The interview was published on a blog. Let's hear a snippet of that.
RALPH BLEWITT: First off I apologise to any of the Australian Workers members, union members, sincerely. It was never my intention to do them any harm or at no stage did I disenfranchise them of any entitlement and I gained no personal financial benefit myself.
There is stuff in these documents that is not on the public, in the public domain yet that should remain confidential on the advice of my lawyers and should only be made available to the police to allow them to then assess how they proceed with it.
TONY EASTLEY: That's Ralph Blewitt speaking there.
Sabra, the lawyer who's helped Mr Blewitt in preparing his statement has spoken to you this morning. What's he said?
SABRA LANE: That's right. Harry Nowicki - he's been writing a history about the Australian Workers Union and through his research he's uncovered documents about this case.
He's met with Mr Blewitt and he's helped him prepare this draft statement for police.
Mr Nowicki admits that there is not a smoking gun document in his research but he says he has a curiosity about this case and just wants questions answered.
Let's hear from him:
HARRY NOWICKI: I'm the first person who has actually shown him documents. He's read them and that's refreshed his memory. So he is basing his statement on documents which refresh his memory.
So he's then going to see the Victorian Fraud Squad and will cooperate with them in making a without prejudice statement that can't be used to incriminate him.
SABRA LANE: Who are the targets here?
HARRY NOWICKI: Well there's no targets. This is a case where really the facts and the true situation about events that occurred are very, very obscure. So there's no target.
Ralph is a signatory to an application to incorporate and he can talk about the documents. Ralph was the registered owner of a house in Fitzroy and he can talk about the purchase of the house.
So Ralph is important because his name appears throughout this matter as one of the key players.
SABRA LANE: Is there a smoking gun document amongst those documents that you've found?
HARRY NOWICKI: Well there's no smoking gun. There's documents tell a story and Ralph was the person who applied to incorporate an association and the document itself is a bizarre document.
SABRA LANE: The Prime Minister says she helped give advice to establish that slush fund but she has no knowledge that it was used to channel funds through inappropriately and she had no knowledge that there was anything illegal done here at all, that she has no involvement, no wrongdoing.
HARRY NOWICKI: Well, the creation of the association may be looked at. Ralph is the author of the document, if you like. Mr Wilson was the person, the architect of the document. So it, the document itself tells a story. How it operated subsequently is interesting and we'll see how events unfold.
SABRA LANE: The Prime Minister says this is just a smear campaign.
HARRY NOWICKI: This is a campaign just to uncover what the true facts are. So it's very, very hard for me to understand how if you're telling the truth about matters, it can smear anyone.
SABRA LANE: Is the Liberal Party helping you in any way?
HARRY NOWICKI: No, not at all, not at all.
TONY EASTLEY: Retired industrial relations lawyer and amateur historian Harry Nowicki speaking to Sabra Lane in Canberra.