The trade union royal commission has apologised to Bill Shorten's lawyers for not returning their phone calls before a raft of documents were released late last Friday night that concerned, in part, the federal Opposition Leader's time as leader of the Australian Workers Union.
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And the commission's solicitor assisting, James Beaton, has insisted that the timing of the document release - after newspaper deadlines and evening radio and TV bulletins - was in no way designed to avoid media scrutiny.
The documents released by the commission on Friday night recommended no criminal charges be supported against Mr Shorten, though counsel assisting, Mr Stoljar, SC, found criminal charges should be considered against Mr Shorten's factional ally and former AWU secretary Cesar Melhem over $100,000-a-year payments to the union, as they should be for construction giant Thiess John Holland
Mr Shorten's lawyer, Leon Zwier, wrote to Mr Beaton and senior associate Shelley Scott on Sunday to complain about the late release of the documents and the fact that his calls to the commission on Friday had been ignored.
But in a response on Monday, Mr Beaton offered his "sincere apologies for not getting back to you on Friday night. I was in the NUW hearings for the whole day and then caught up with other urgent matters."
Mr Beaton said the release of the AWU submissions, which in part concern Mr Shorten's time as former leader of that union, were "still being finalised on Friday evening and the team was working hard to get them out to all affected persons in accordance with the commissioner's published deadline".
"I am aware of reports that the release of the submissions was timed to avoid media scrutiny. I can assure you that was never contemplated. The commission's sole objective in releasing the submissions on Friday evening was to meet a legal deadline," Mr Beaton said.
Mr Beaton went on to say that it had not been the commission's practice to provide media releases to legal representatives, "however, we will add you to our media distribution list if you wish".
A spokesman for Mr Shorten, however, said that "releasing information to the media at 8pm on a Friday night is a sure-fire way to bury news".
"These actions say everything about how political this royal commission is. No reasonable person would think that withholding such significant news until late on a Friday is acceptable."
Following the late release of the documents, Mr Shorten said the timing of the release was further proof of a "politically motivated royal commission – and this is typical of the way it's been conducting itself".
On Monday, Labor employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said it "was a concern to us that the information was provided to the media before the affected parties, as you say late on Friday night, before an opportunity was granted to Bill Shorten or any other person to respond comprehensively for the following day's media".
"I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories, but this certainly is at the very least tardy, a disregard for procedural fairness, and underlines the constant problems we've had with the conduct of the royal commission."
Commissioner Dyson Heydon faced accusations of political bias earlier this year after it emerged he had agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser, from which he subsequently withdrew.
