A five-year investigation into the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and former Labor leader Bill Shorten over alleged dodgy donations has been dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Despite finding that several donations were improperly declared, the Registered Organisations Commission federal watchdog said this week it would not pursue the probe further.
The investigation was sparked by media reports in 2017 that former AWU national secretary Bill Shorten had not correctly declared a $100,000 donation to activist group GetUp, of which he is a founding director.
There were also questions by the media about whether Mr Shorten had gained proper authorisation for a $25,000 donation made by the AWU to the Australian Labor Party in the lead up to the 2007 federal election.
Raids were conducted by Federal Police on the AWU offices in Sydney and Melbourne after Mr Shorten decided not to co-operate with the investigation, despite initially saying he would.
The ROC found the AWU had failed to lodge annual Loans, Grants and Donations (LGD) statements between 2006 and 2013 either outside of the statutory time frame requirements or by not lodging a required statement at all.
“In some cases, LGD statements were not lodged until years after the statutory time periods had elapsed,” it said.
“The AWU has admitted it failed to lodge a LGD statement at all in 2007 and has never met that obligation in circumstances in which its internal records showed that it made about $42,000 of donations that have never been disclosed to its members.
“This included at least three political donations totalling $33,000.”
However, it said because of the “deficient record keeping practices of the AWU, the effluxion of time, and its inability to produce relevant documents”, the investigation was unable to attribute the failures to Mr Shorten or any other specific individuals.
On Friday, Mr Shorten called the investigation a “five-year-long political witch-hunt” and accused the government of using the Russian invasion of Ukraine to quietly release the outcome.
However, Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker said Mr Shorten still had questions to answer about the donations.
“Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese also needs to show some leadership – he should be calling Mr Shorten into his office and demanding an explanation about how the funds of hardworking AWU members were spent when he was their leader,” she said.
Mr Albanese is taking a plan to the next election to abolish the ROC, which was established in 2016 by Malcolm Turnbull, as he says it has been “politicised and discredited”, primarily by the prolonged investigation into the AWU.
He also intends to dismantle the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which he says pursues union officials over minor infractions rather than addressing larger issues.
“Mr Albanese pretends he is all about ensuring integrity in public office, but instead he is promising to abolish a vital organisation which ensures the funds of union members are spent appropriately,” Ms Stoker said.
The AWU initially had the investigation quashed by the court in October 2017, however the ROC successfully appealed to have it reinstated, despite being delayed by more than three years.
The ROC said in a statement it believed had Mr Shortenxjmtzyw and the AWU co-operated in August 2017, the investigation could have been concluded in two to four weeks, rather than five years, with a similar outcome.
