I agree Winnedge but would go a lot further with questions relating to this scandal. I keep coming back to Bill Shorten and his attempts to shut down the call for a Royal Commission. The comment suggested that many of the officials had something to hide. So, my question here is: what else did the documents reveal? What was Bill Shorten hiding? Why was he so keen to shut down the push for a Royal Commission. My thoughts on the subject run along the lines of: perhaps Bruce Wilson was not the only one who was taking advantage of funds set aside by State Governments for the purposes of training. This was the period when government departments as well as big business were into training. Everyone had to be "trained" and money was being splashed around for that training. What if there is a larger scandal relating to training? However, it could also be the more specific scandal relating to asbestos that had Bill Shorten freaking out. How many people are aware of the scandal involving the dumping of asbestos material in those road sites? There is more than one company that had to deal with contaminated soil. What if the bigger scandal involves the manner in which this contaminated soil was dealt with at the time?

I agree with comments made by Hillbilly. I could not say it better than him. I agree with the points that he has made. Gillard did not give Sid Maher an honest answer.

Jeff, I was raised in Melbourne and that is the correct pronunciation.

What is interesting to me is that the invoices are for a 54 hour week. Really? What union works a 54 hour week? Yes, the invoices do contain repetition. They also do not give a name to the AWU-WRA employee who is supposed to be on site.

I endorse Hillbilly's conclusions. He has picked up the essence of what appears to be a money laundering scheme.

An association can exist without incorporation. In this case, it looks like the people at Thiess stated that they needed to have an incorporated entity to pull off this particular scam. It seems very dodgy that the first invoice covers the three months prior to the actual incorporation of the association going through... very dodgy.

Jbman, the entity is an incorporated association but it is not a corporation as in it does not have directors etc.

I would assume that the AP person queried the name and address, and probably got in touch with Wilson or someone in authority at Thiess who knew about the deal. I agree with your conclusion Amortiser, that the person higher up must have known what was happening. In regard to the BCITF, I agree with your conclusions, but I am looking at it as though it was a money laundering exercise. The scam seems to be in two parts. In one part is the fake invoices coming from the AWU-WRA. The other part is the paperwork that was sent to the BCITF and the approval of the funds being given to Thiess. Since Wilson had been on the BCITF Board, and he removed himself prior to this deal happening, it looks like the two degrees of separation. However, it shows that he had the necessary knowledge about how the scheme works, and he put that knowledge to work in getting hold of the funds via an elaborate scheme.

That indicates that they decided that they had to use a different purchase order number.

I am not so certain that Michelle is pointing out discrepancies, but she certainly has pointed out the timeline that is to be found in the documents. In my view (which really means nothing), upon looking at the timeline of the documents, there seems to be clear evidence of the criminality of the actions that took place.

Michael, since I have been out of the loop for a very long time I am not up on the appropriate laws. However, I would tend to agree with the ASX that this is a matter covered by the Corporations Law, and subsequently it comes under the province of ASIC to investigate. It will be interesting to see if ASIC also attempts to pass the buck because I fear that they could come back and say that this related to a matter prior to SLAG becoming a listed company. (Law firms are normally partnerships!!)

ASIC is a statutory authority and as such I assume that Gillard could make an appointment. However, that is not the case for the ASX who have passed the buck relating to this matter.

When it comes to the issue of journalism and the fact that the proprietors fear the harm that can be done when people report the truth, one must question whether we do in fact have free speech. I think now is a good time to look at what has happened in the USA under the present White House Administration because it is very chilling. The DoJ went too far and the effect is in fact a chilling of the right to free speech. This is also the impact of the behaviour of the IRS in the USA. What is at stake happens to be our very freedoms. The ranting, raving and bitching of the current Crime Minister is an absolute disgrace and it seems that the newspaper outlets fear her outbursts and so they hide from the truth. I think we can also learn from the way that both Boris Johnson and David Cameron have walked back their talking points about the latest London jihad attack. They seem to be afraid of upsetting people who would soon as kill them, rather than being "friends", but they persist in the nonsense that what happened is not part of Islam and that is pure unadulterated BULLTISH

Is there any difference between that form of shit, or the other "works of art" where Labor types have spent big bucks? An example of the waste includes that heap of garbage known as Blue Poles. I have seen that piece of garbage and it was never worth the investment. Someone else pointed out that there is a name for people fascinated by shitting etc. It seems to me that the woman responsible for this garbage has a mental deficiency of some sort and that she needs some expert help. She does not need govt money, she needs a psychiatrist!!

Whenever I have signed documents that need to be witnessed, at the same time as my partner, I have used the same pen, and the witnesses have used the same pen. We have done this in front of lawyers, as well as accountants. On one occasion I needed to get the signature of a JP and same deal, he had to see me sign the document and then he added his stamp and signature with the same pen. It is normal practice with the signing of any legal documents, yet in this case we see nothing like that.

Yes indeed, I picked up on that point :) and wrote about it on my own blog. It does not look good for Lois Lerner because she used that form of defense. :)

It is not "if" but it is "when" Thomson loses the election. All polls except one quoted by Thomson indicate that he is not going to win Dobell this time. Take it from me, a voter in Dobell, he is not as popular as he thinks.

what a very gross thought.

Thanks Stu keep them coming. September is a long way and we need to laugh at her....

We do not have corrupt people in the High Court, although in the past Lionel Murphy was held to be corrupt.

I back up comments by old banker but from the pov of someone involved with an association/s. Every time there is a change in the structure of the office bearers of an Association the records must be updated with the Financial Institution including as stated by old banker, the minutes of the meeting that authorizes the opening of accounts etc.

Well I have this to say: If "David" or any other of these volunteers calls my number because I am in a marginal electorate and we are not voting for Craig Thomson, then that person is going to wish he or she never called, because the air is likely to end up a very deep shade of BLUE !!

I have been mentioning the story at every possible opportunity. My family in Melbourne hate Gillard. I name drop when I get the opportunity, using the signals I get in conversation to point people in this direction.

Val, I am not criticizing your comment, but hopefully providing some extra background regarding what should happen withing the accounts department. Most companies (and yes Govt has it too), have a purchase order system that requires people who want things to fill out a purchase order prior to acquisition. There must be something to back up the purchase order. In this particular instance, I would expect that the accounts department, when they received the invoice, went looking for the purchase order so that the invoice could be paid. No invoice should be paid if the purchase order is not quoted. The invoices are specifically for the AWU representative on site (even though no evidence of him being on site has been supplied). The other item that is missing is the actual time sheets for that AWU representative. Normally, when a contract worker is supplied to a company, the invoice for payment of that worker details the number of hours complete with a signed hours work sheet attached to the invoice.

You might be a lot closer than you think, but I would say that he has been retired for a long time, but is still active as a judge.