Opposition digs deeper on Gillard and AWU

Updated November 27, 2012 18:26:00

The Federal Opposition has again devoted an entire question time to pursuing the AWU slush fund scandal. The Government labelled the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott gutless for leaving it to his deputy Julie Bishop to ask every question.

Source: PM | Duration: 5min 37sec

Topics: federal-parliament, australia


MARK COLVIN: Julia Gillard says it's smear pure and simple.

The Federal Opposition says it won't be bluffed. It's escalated its attack against the Prime Minister over a union slush fund established in the 1990s.

The Prime Minister held a lengthy press conference yesterday in a bid to refute allegations of wrong doing during her work as a lawyer 17 years ago.

In one of the last parliamentary Question Times for the year, the deputy Opposition Leader, Julie Bishop, has again used every question to quiz the Prime Minister about the matter.

During an intense hour, the Government called the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott gutless for remaining silent throughout.

From Canberra, Samantha Hawley reports.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: With the parliamentary year's end just days away, the Opposition wants to go out with a bang.

But there's no smoking gun yet.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We don't need the file; we get the dirt out of their mouths. We get the dirt out of their mouths, except for him; gutless.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese stopped the Opposition from tabling a so-called dirt file on the Prime Minister and the Australian Workers' Union.

And condemned the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, for not getting to his feet to ask the string of questions put by his Deputy, Julie Bishop.

The Prime Minister.

JULIA GILLARD: Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition thought he could sit in this Parliament with a cloak of invisibility around him. What was visible to every member of the Australian public was his dirt file. And here we are again today with the dirt file brought into Parliament.

ANNA BURKE: The Prime Minister will resume her seat. The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister was asked whether she could guarantee if any AWU slush funds were used for her home renovations.

She needs to answer that question.

ANNA BURKE: Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat.

JULIA GILLARD: He is filling the vacuum with sleaze and smear.

ANNA BURKE: ...Will refer to the question before the Chair.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Opposition used every allocated question to quiz the Prime Minister about the Australian Workers' Union slush fund.

Julia Gillard says as a lawyer she provided help to her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson and another union official Ralph Blewitt in setting up a union association in the 1990s, but she's adamant she didn't know it was going to be a slush fund and she did nothing wrong.

In a Coalition party room meeting, Tony Abbott told his colleagues the Government is trying to bluff the Opposition out pursuing the AWU matter.

So over and over again his Deputy got to her feet.

JULIE BISHOP: Did the Prime Minister receive any other benefit from Town Mode or any related entity?

JULIA GILLARD: Dear me we are down the bottom of the barrel now, aren't we? We are down the bottom of the barrel.

JULIE BISHOP: Can the Prime Minister guarantee that this payment was not for her home renovations?

JULIA GILLARD: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is in here, engaged in smear. This is truly pathetic.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: As Julie Bishop continued, the Speaker Anna Burke cut her short a number of times.

ANNA BURKE: I'm finding it hard as to why, why the last two questions are within the Prime Minister's, are within the area of the Prime Minister's responsibility.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Even before Question Time, Julie Bishop had been ramping up her attack against the Prime Minister.

JULIE BISHOP: She created the stolen vehicle that the bank robbers took to the bank to rob the bank.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: And without the protection of parliamentary privilege on the way into the building, for the first time she linked Julia Gillard directly to the misuse of union funds.


SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It took until late this afternoon for Julie Bishop to clarify what she meant by that comment.

JULIE BISHOP: I didn't say that in Question Time yesterday and I'm not saying that today. That's what I said.

JOURNALIST 1: You said they siphoned off profits for their benefit and referring Blewitt.

JULIE BISHOP: No, I did not. No. No, I didn't.

JOURNALIST 2: Wilson and Blewitt set up this fund and siphoned off money for their benefit. What else does that mean?

JULIE BISHOP: Well their benefit, the members of the association. There are only two members of the association. She wasn't a member of the association.

JOURNALIST 3: You're saying she was a knowing party to a fraud, a knowing party to a fraud?

JULIE BISHOP: I still have questions to ask of the Prime Minister and I'll certainly continue them but she was certainly a knowing party to breaches of relevant laws in Western Australia.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: It's a very serious statement...

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Anthony Albanese again.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...by Ms Bishop of criminal activity made against the Prime Minister and Ms Bishop has to back it up.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Julie Bishop has also revealed she met one of the men at the centre of the scandal, Ralph Blewitt, in Melbourne last week and urged him to produce documents which could help the Opposition prosecute its case.

She received nothing from a man she doesn't trust anyway.

JOURNALIST: Does he seem like a trustworthy character to you?

JULIE BISHOP: No, he's a self-confessed fraudster.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Tony Abbot can't hide behind silence and he has to state whether he is 100 per cent behind the actions of his Deputy Leader or dismiss his Deputy Leader.

JULIA GILLARD: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has confessed during those interviews to being in the company of Ralph Blewitt last Friday. She's had her own Godwin Grech moment, her own Godwin Grech moment.

ANNA BURKE: Order. The Prime Minister will resume her seat.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: This issue will dominate this parliamentary week, the last for the year, smoking gun or not.

MARK COLVIN: Samantha Hawley.