What about EVIDENCE in the form of copies of original documents and Statutory Declarations? Gillard is guilty regardless of her being 35 or something at the time .... I wouldn't call that age group young and naive, would you? Mike Smith is right onto this and all the evidence is on his site for all to see. No joke! She's unbelievable and a real liar!Aussie wrote:Rorschach wrote:I'm sorry Aussie but you gotta keep up there were new installments in the Gillard/Union/Slater&Gordon case today.
Oh and Aussie... I didn't bring it up.
Unlike Skippy who is trying on a defense based on hearsay from dubious individuals.You do not understand the concept of hearsay do you. Eye witness accounts are never so. They are direct evidence of the best kind.
Spot on!It has nothing to do with Tony Abbott despite the rusted on Lefties trying to change the subject!
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political ... z29VaKnqYC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Gillard files missing, say lawyers
October 17, 2012
Mark Baker
A FILE detailing Julia Gillard’s role in helping set up a union slush fund from which her former boyfriend stole hundreds of thousands of dollars has disappeared.
Law firm Slater & Gordon yesterday said it could find no documents relating to the work done by Ms Gillard — a former salaried partner of the firm — in establishing the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association in 1992.
Police believe the association was used by Ms Gillard’s former boyfriend and senior AWU official Bruce Wilson to steal more than $400,000, including about $100,000 which helped fund the purchase of a Fitzroy unit bought with Ms Gillard’s professional assistance.
Slater & Gordon managing director Andrew Grech told The Age last night that the firm had not been able to locate any documents relating to the controversial transaction.
‘‘We have not been able to identify any such documents following extensive searches of our archival records,’’ Mr Grech said.
‘‘If there are such documents, we don’t have them. They could have been misplaced, or lost. I simply don’t know.’’
Ms Gillard resigned from Slater & Gordon after being challenged in September 1995 about her role in setting up the association without consulting senior colleagues and without opening a formal file on the firm’s computer system. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Ms Gillard did, however, keep an unofficial file detailing the work which was found in a cabinet in her office after she initially claimed to have sent it to an undisclosed third party.
During a meeting with then senior partner Peter Gordon and general manager Geoff Shaw, Ms Gillard was shown and acknowledged the file, described in a transcript released two months ago as being ‘‘exactly right in front of’’ her.
Confirmation that the file is missing comes a day after the federal opposition called on Slater & Gordon to make public all records relating to the formation of the association to see whether a fresh police investigation was warranted.
Shadow attorney-general George Brandis claimed Ms Gillard may have broken the law by vouching for the bona fides of an organisation she later confirmed was a union election slush fund.
Registration documents prepared with her advice declared that the association was formed for the purpose of ‘‘development of changes to work to achieve safe workplaces’’.
But Ms Gillard confirmed at a media conference in August that she had told Mr Gordon and Mr Shaw that the association was a ‘‘slush fund’’ for union election campaigning.
A report in last Saturday’s Age revealed that the association had only been registered after Ms Gillard vouched for its legitimacy to West Australian authorities.
A copy of a letter she wrote to answer objections raised by the WA Corporate Affairs Commission about the association’s union connections is believed to have been contained in the missing file.
In response to a series of questions from The Age, MrGrech said Slater & Gordon had been unable to find any documents about the forming of association — including any letter sent to the Corporate Affairs Commission.
‘‘These matters relate to events occurring more than 18 years ago. In the ordinary course of events client files are destroyed after seven years unless there is some regulatory or other reason not to do so,’’ Mr Grech said.
For the past five weeks lawyers representing Ralph Blewitt, the former AWU state secretary and close associate of Bruce Wilson who registered the Workplace Reform Association, have been seeking access to records held by Slater & Gordon.
In a letter dated September 24, partner Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler, representing Slaters, challenged Mr Blewitt’s claim.
‘‘It is not sufficient to claim that any documents we hold concerning the AWU Workplace Reform Association belong to your client simply because he was at some point an office holder of the association,’’ MrZwier wrote.
In reply, lawyers Galbally Rolfe, representing Mr Blewitt, said: ‘‘We note your admission on behalf of Slater & Gordon that they hold documents concerning the AWU Workplace Reform Association.’’
Mr Grech rejected as ‘‘highly defamatory and wrong’’ claims the firm was withholding information from former clients.
Gillard insisted that while she, as a salaried partner at Slater & Gordon, had helped establish the slush fund from which her boyfriend and senior Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson had filched more than $400,000, and while she had helped his crony buy a Fitzroy unit with some of those funds, she knew nothing about the racket until it was exposed by others in the AWU.
The Prime Minister's use of language in recent weeks to maintain her thesis that she has answered everything there is to answer about the sordid events of two decades ago has been skilful. A marathon media conference in late August looked to have put the issue to bed, until fresh news reports raised fresh questions. Then Gillard deflected a barrage of opposition questions in Parliament two weeks ago without really answering any of them.
But fighting words may no longer be enough to see off an issue on which many in the 0pposition, a growing number of journalists and a significant group within the Prime Minister's own Labor caucus believe she is compromised and vulnerable. To them, Gillard's strident responses have begun to sound more evasive than convincing.
While nothing beyond circumstantial evidence has emerged to challenge Gillard's insistence that she did nothing wrong - and knew nothing wrong was being done - her account of events remains questionable in several key areas: her role in establishing the AWU association, her role in the purchase of the Fitzroy unit and her recent insistence that none of the stolen funds slushed in her direction.
Gillard says she only gave routine advice on the establishment of the association, but, as The Age revealed last month, a letter she wrote to the West Australian Corporate Affairs Commission in mid-1992 was instrumental in overcoming the commission's objections to its formation - supposedly to promote workplace safety and training rather than the union election ''slush fund'' she later conceded it was. Now Slater & Gordon is unable to find the unofficial incorporation file kept by Gillard, and a corresponding file held in the WA archives was recently found to be empty - neither of which supports the wistful contention of Gillard backers that this is the end of that matter.
She drafted the power-of-attorney Wilson used to buy the unit in the name of his crony, Ralph Blewitt, at an auction she attended with Wilson. She organised finance from a Slater & Gordon loan facility (in addition to more than $100,000 siphoned from the AWU association) and she rounded off the work by signing, ''fee declined, Julia''. And later she was a regular guest in the premises Wilson made his Melbourne home.
As the opposition gears up for a fresh attack when the House of Representatives sits again in two weeks, the inconsistencies in the Prime Minister's answers are likely to fuel the controversy and reinforce the impression that she has not given a comprehensive account of what she knew and when.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politi ... z2C3Zvd67E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Whatever happens, there is no doubt Gillard's emphatic denials of any wrongdoing, both in public and in Parliament, make her vulnerable in the event that there are further revelations that challenge or contradict her account.
Lawyers contradict PM's claim
November 13, 2012
Mark Baker
LAW firm Slater & Gordon has contradicted Julia Gillard's claim that she was not in charge of legal work for the purchase in 1993 of a Fitzroy property later found to have been bought with stolen union money.
Ms Gillard - a former salaried partner with the firm - last week denied responsibility for conveyancing work on the purchase of the Kerr Street unit by a crony of her disgraced former boyfriend Bruce Wilson.
''I was not in charge of the conveyancing file,'' she told journalists during a visit to Laos.
But Slater & Gordon managing director Andrew Grech has confirmed Ms Gillard ''acted directly'' in the conveyancing work on the property purchase. The confirmation came in documents lodged with the Australian Press Council in support of a complaint against Fairfax newspapers and this journalist over reporting of the firm's role in the Australian Workers Union ''slush fund'' scandal.
Ms Gillard is under sustained opposition attack over her role as a legal adviser to the union in the early 1990s when Mr Wilson was a senior official. She has denied any wrongdoing.
A West Australian fraud squad investigation discovered in 1996 that Mr Wilson had stolen more than $400,000 from the AWU Workplace Reform Association.
The association, established with Ms Gillard's professional assistance in 1992, was incorporated to promote workplace safety and training, but she has publicly confirmed it was a ''slush fund'' designed to raise union election campaign funds.
More than $100,000 from the association was used to purchase the Fitzroy unit in the name of Ralph Blewitt, a close associate of Mr Wilson and then WA secretary of the AWU.
The property - which Mr Blewitt had never seen - was bought at auction by Mr Wilson in the company of Ms Gillard using a power-of-attorney she had drafted. She then arranged finance from a Slater & Gordon loan facility to complete the purchase and waived legal fees on the conveyancing work.
Slater & Gordon has complained to the Press Council about reports in Fairfax newspapers and associated websites on October 13 detailing internal tensions within the firm in 1995 over Ms Gillard's conduct and her role in the formation of the AWU association.
One of the reports detailed how a letter written by Ms Gillard to the WA Corporate Affairs Commission in mid-1992 had vouched for the bona fides of the association and been instrumental in securing approval for its incorporation.
In a ''summary of issues'' submitted to the Press Council, Mr Grech objected to accusations by lawyers representing Mr Blewitt that Slater & Gordon was stalling the release of an unofficial file created by Ms Gillard detailing work on the incorporation.
''The only documentary evidence Slater & Gordon was in possession of was that Ms Gillard acted directly for Mr Blewitt in relation to a conveyancing matter, a union dispute and a defamation matter,'' he said.
Mr Grech confirmed to Fairfax on October 16 that the file was missing.
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