Slush fund claims raise fresh leadership tension for Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Why Julia is so upset
Part IV
IS OUR PRIME MINISTER A CROOK?:
Simon Benson
The Daily Telegraph
August 20, 2012
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is facing new leadership concerns among key cabinet and caucus supporters over the revival of an alleged 17-year-old union slush fund scandal involving her former boyfriend.
"I did nothing wrong. Have you got an allegation to put to me? If you do not, why are we discussing this?"
Senior government sources have confirmed that over the past two weeks a growing "unease" had crept into the Gillard camp about the scandal "blowing up" and crippling her leadership.
Those fears were compounded yesterday during a fiery interview on Sky's Australian Agenda, when Ms Gillard refused to address allegations raised against her.
"I did nothing wrong. Have you got an allegation to put to me? If you do not, why are we discussing this?" she said.
Ms Gillard has previously denied any knowledge that her then-boyfriend, Australian Workers Union State secretary Bruce Wilson, had allegedly ripped off a union fund that Ms Gillard had set up for him when she was a lawyer with Slater & Gordon in the early '90s.
She refused to answer claims yesterday that she was forced to resign from the firm following an internal investigation in August, 1995.
Instead she hit out at what she claimed was a "malicious and motivated" campaign against her.
Slater & Gordon late yesterday released a short statement, claiming to have been given permission by Ms Gillard, confirming it conducted a review into the AWU/Wilson affair.
"Ms Gillard co-operated fully with the review and denied any wrongdoing," the firm's managing director Andrew Grech said.
"The review found nothing which contradicted the information provided by Ms Gillard at the time in relation to the AWU/Bruce Wilson allegations and which she has stated consistently since the allegations were first raised."
It claimed that Ms Gillard took leave of absence following the review to campaign for the senate, before her employment officially ended on May 3, 1996 when she joined the office of Victorian Opposition Leader John Brumby.
Allegations were raised at the weekend by a former partner at the firm, Nick Styant-Browne, suggesting Ms Gillard may have acted improperly in helping set up a slush fund for Mr Wilson.
Mr Styant Browne claimed that Ms Gillard said in an interview as part of a formal review of the matter conducted by the firm in 1995, that she could not categorically rule out that she had personally benefited from union funds in the renovation of her Melbourne house.
Mr Styant-Browne said yesterday that he stood by the article and the claims made.
"I think what I have said speaks for itself.
"And I am not aware of any denial by the PM or her spokesperson of any specific allegation about what she said in the Slater & Gordon internal interview," he told The Daily Telegraph.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Ms Gillard had "questions to answer" to the parliament. "I think there are real issues that the PM needs to address," he said.
More here at The Bolt Report Pt 2
