Sunday, November 25, 2012

Windsor stands by Gillard over AWU scandal - Yahoo!7 News


Prime Minister Julia Gillard still enjoys the support of key independent MP Tony Windsor as she steels herself for an opposition onslaught in parliament about her role in the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) scandal.


"I haven't seen anything that remotely resembles some sort of wrongdoing," Mr Windsor told ABC Radio on Monday, ahead of parliament's final sitting week of the year.


But he warned there might be a role for parliament at some stage.


"Now if it's proven that there is some sort of wrongdoing, obviously that's when the parliament might have to do something."


The opposition has vowed to use the week to pursue Ms Gillard over her actions as a lawyer setting up a trade union slush fund in the early 1990s.


It is demanding the prime minister make a full explanation to parliament about her role in setting up the fund for her then-boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson.


The fund was allegedly used by Mr Wilson and another union official, Ralph Blewitt, to pay for part of a home loan and defraud union members.


There are reports Ms Gillard may go on the offensive ahead of question time at 2pm (AEDT).


Government sources have pointed to discrepancies in Mr Blewitt's story in a sign the prime minister and her supporters may provide a detailed response to the plethora of claims made against her in recent weeks, The Australian Financial Review said on Monday.


The government believed the emergence over the weekend of Mr Wilson, who claimed Ms Gillard knew nothing of fraud within the AWU Workplace Reform Association, had helped change the momentum of the unrelenting attack.


Opposition Leader Tony Abbott again has called on Ms Gillard to provide parliament with a full explanation, saying he was still "more than ready" to give her the benefit of the doubt over the issue.


"In order to give her the benefit of the doubt, we've got to hear her side of the story," he told reporters in Canberra.


"All we've had from the prime minister so far are increasingly shrill stonewallings, increasingly shrill denials."


Mr Abbott said there was enough new material and documentary evidence for a full explanation.


Cabinet minister Peter Garrett accused Mr Abbott of running a smear campaign against the prime minister.


"The opposition have used the parliament basically as a boxing ring," he told ABC Television.


"Mr Abbott's negativity and the tactics of the opposition to constantly blow up the parliament are not earning him any great kudos in the community."


Parliament should be debating serious issues of substance that went to the heart of Australia's future, Mr Garrett said.

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