Labour Hire Company Donated $40,000 For 2007 Campaign, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten Admits

Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is under pressure after it has emerged that he received a $40,000 donation during his 2007 election campaign. Australia's electoral watchdog and the Australian Labor Party received the complete declaration about the donation only on Monday.

According to a letter by Shorten to ALP official Kosmos Samaras, the Opposition Leader received more than $40,000 to pay for the services of a campaign manager. Shorten appeared at the union royal commission for the first time Wednesday as he faced questions related to the donation.

Shorten was asked questions related to his 2007 campaign director Lance Wilson who had been paid by Unibuilt, a labour hire company. The humongous amount of donated money is related to the payment of Wilson.

Shorten was asked if Wilson really worked on his campaign in 2007 or had been a research officer at Unibuilt. Shorten apparently confirmed that Wilson would be paid by the company but work for his campaign.

The Labor leader acknowledged that Unibuilt had made a donation of a person on his campaign in 2007. He confirmed that Wilson had worked as his campaign director and as a campaign resource.

Wilson was paid $52,000 for working on Shorten’s campaign in 2007. Documents showed that Unibuilt had paid $40,000 of that amount. While the rest of the amount was invoiced to the company, it never paid the remaining $12,000.

Counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar suggested that Shorten was aware about the donation for months and was “'waiting to see whether this would emerge in the royal commission.” “Excuse me, not at all,” ABC News quoted Shorten who denied the claim.

Shorten also denied that he had used his position of being the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union during his electoral campaign. Former AWU member Sussan Ley said that the union was committed to workers, not to politicians. “What I want to know is that unions are looking after (workers') interests,” the Liberal frontbencher told Sky News.

The Opposition Leader took “ultimate responsibility” for sending an incomplete form to the ALP head office. He said that he had come to know about the incomplete return form only a few days back.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au