In a testy exchange with CFMEU barrister John Agius SC this morning, Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has ruled that airing a building company director's secret recording of a telephone call with a union organiser was not unlawful because it was in the public interest for it to be played.
The Heydon Royal Commission today denied leaking information to the media, after the CFMEU’s construction division complained about the emergence into the public arena of material that is expected to be aired at next week’s hearing into the union.
The Heydon Royal Commission will turn its sights on the CFMEU next week, moving to Melbourne for three days starting on Monday, followed by one day in Sydney on Friday.
Former HSU leader Marco Bolano has told the Heydon Royal Commission this morning that he was "surprised" to discover that tobacco giant Philip Morris had contributed funds to his 2009 election campaign and "stunned" that political "enemy" Bill Shorten had done likewise.
Future Prime Minister Julia Gillard told a Melbourne builder in 1993 that AWU leader and her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson was paying for her home renovations, the Heydon Royal Commission has heard.
Fair Work Commission member Ian Cambridge, a former national secretary of the AWU, will appear this week before the Heydon Royal Commission, which will resume its hearings into the union’s Workplace Reform Association "slush fund".
The Heydon Royal Commission will give parties advance warning of evidence in in which they are "substantially and directly interested", under the terms of a new practice note.
