UPDATE 17/08: The ACTU has successfully applied for access to documents relating to Dyson Heydon's agreement to appears at the LNP fundraiser. 


ORIGINAL: The man in charge of the royal commission into union corruption is being promoted as the guest speaker at a Liberal Party fundraiser.

In a scandal that is already being used to discredit the royal commission, former judge Dyson Heydon has been accused of nailing his colours to the mast, even though he is rapidly backing away from the event.

He was listed as the keynote speaker at the Sir Garfield Barwick Address on August 26 at the Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney, which according to documents allegedly obtained by Fairfax Media, requires an $80-per-head fee to be paid to the NSW branch of the Liberal Party.

The revelation only adds to the claims of partisanship around the royal commission that Labor continues to decry as a political witch hunt.

Soon after the story broke this morning, the commissioner moved to distance himself from the event.

Justice Heydon was forced to adjourn hearings of the commission at around 10am this morning, returning after about 10 minutes, before announcing “another problem has come to my attention”.

Hearings resumed at 11.17am, and a statement from a spokesperson for Justice Heydon was issued at 11.30am.

The spokesperson said he had decided not to deliver the address.

“As early as 9.23am this morning (and prior to any media enquiry being received) he advised the organisers that ‘if there was any possibility that the event could be described as a Liberal Party event he will be unable to give the address, at least whilst he is in the position of royal commissioner’,” the spokesperson said.

But the invitation has been out for months, and states; “All proceeds from this event will be applied to state election campaigning.”

Attorney-General George Brandis spoke at the same fundraiser in June 2010.

“If it is true that a royal commissioner investigating Tony Abbott's political opponents is now attending a Liberal Party fundraiser, that is incredibly serious, incredibly concerning,” Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.

“Any pretence of independence of the trade union royal commission is now gone,” Greens MP Adam Bandt said.

“The royal commission must be immediately terminated.”

The $80 million royal commission was set up in the wake of the AWU slush fund scandal, which was used to dog the end of the former PM Julia Gillard’s career, and has been investigating issues from the workplace conduct of the CFMEU to corporate corruption at the HSU.

On a related note, Adam Bandt appears to have found another suspicious fundraising link. Have a look below.