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The Queensland Government has repealed its requirement for unions to conduct a ballot of members before engaging in any political campaigning worth more than $10,000.
Unions lost almost 93,000 members in the 12 months to August last year and density plunged to new lows of 17% overall and 12% in the private sector, according to the ABS.
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.
Australia has been named as a "country of concern" at the opening of the third congress of the International Trade Union Confederation in Berlin, along with more usual targets of criticism.
There is no reason why proceedings shouldn't be launched to deregister the CFMEU's construction and general division, according to former Royal Commissioner Roger Gyles, who says NSW's Greiner-Fahey Government should have taken up his recommendation to eradicate one of its former predecessors, the NSW BWIU.
Former TWU national president and WA branch secretary Jim McGiveron has dismissed as "a complete fantasy" a claim by former AWU WA branch leader Ralph Blewitt that he was given $5000 cash in a brown paper bag to help win control of the transport union's state branch two decades ago.
The HSU has lodged a claim for its former national secretary Kathy Jackson to repay $246,500 in union money it alleges were transferred to an external fund that was used for political campaigning.
The Heydon Royal Commission into trade unions will begin its public hearings with the former AWU official Ralph Blewitt, in evidence that is expected to touch on the role of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard as a young lawyer.
