Op-Ed for SMH Online: Why is Labor trying to discredit the Trade Union Royal Commission?

How seriously should we take the complaint of an official of a trade union under investigation by a royal commission that the royal commission was "clearly a political device" with unfair procedures so that "hearsay evidence of the most flimsy nature has been presented to the public as fact"?

These were the words of Peter O'Dea, an official of the notorious Builders Labourers Federation, appearing before a royal commission into the BLF in 1982.

So furiously did BLF officials seek to obstruct the royal commission that its final report observed, "one is left with the strong suspicion that they recognise that their activities … will not withstand close scrutiny and that, accordingly, the best defence is offence".

The royal commission duly reported – and the BLF was revealed to be rife with criminality, corruption and thuggery. In 1986 the BLF was deregistered by the Hawke Labor government.

There are telling similarities between the BLF's complaints in 1982 – and Labor's complaints in 2015 about the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, led by Dyson Heydon.

Bill Shorten called the royal commission a "political exercise designed purely to smear [Tony Abbott's] opponents".

Brendan O'Connor, shadow workplace relations minister, complained about "the conduct of the commission, the way it discloses unsubstantiated facts … its inconsistent application of using cross-examination" and called it "this $80 million witch-hunt".

Labor is engaged in a deliberate attempt to discredit the work of the royal commission – no doubt because it is worried about the kind of evidence which is emerging.

A former Canberra official of the CFMEU, Fihi Kivalu​, admitted at the royal commission taking thousands of dollars from builders. After giving evidence he was arrested. Mr Kivalu is a former president of a Labor Party sub-branch in Canberra.

Another CFMEU member, Tu'ungafasi Menase​, was arrested and charged with perjury after his appearance before the royal commission.

The royal commission heard evidence that CFMEU officials sought to establish price-fixing agreements between building companies in Canberra; the ACCC is now investigating.

Former Victorian secretary of the AWU, Cesar Melhem​, had to resign his position as Labor whip in the Victorian upper house after evidence at the royal commission about "Industry 2020", a $500,000 "slush fund" he controlled.

The royal commission's interim report said Melhem's slush fund helped pay for campaigns within the union movement and the Labor Party – and to make donations to various Labor campaigns including Bill Shorten's seat of Maribyrnong.

Former HSU official Kathy Jackson was questioned at the royal commission about whether she took $250,000 the HSU received from an industrial negotiation with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – and put it into a slush fund which she used as she chose.

The AWU received – but failed to disclose as it should have under federal law – nearly $400,000 over five years from a Melbourne construction firm, Winslow, to pay the union membership fees of employees, the royal commission heard.

Then AWU official Bill Shorten received a donation of $40,000 from Unibilt, a labour-hire firm which had regular dealings with the AWU, towards the costs of his 2007 campaign as Labor's candidate for Maribyrnong, according to evidence to the royal commission. For eight years he failed to disclose the donation – as he should have done under federal law.

In their efforts to discredit the royal commission, Labor MPs last week leapt on reports that Dyson Heydon had been invited to give the "Sir Garfield Barwick address", organised by the Lawyers' Professional Branch of the Liberal Party in NSW.

Heydon has withdrawn from the lecture and, scrupulously, has invited submissions about whether this affects the performance of his duties as royal commissioner.

But he has been the victim of a ferocious personal attack. Labor's Tony Burke said he was "conflicted", "biased" and "incompetent"; Labor's Jason Clare called him a "bagman" before being forced to withdraw.

It is a depressing spectacle: a major political party desperate to discredit a thorough, fact-based investigation which is demonstrably uncovering substantive and troubling evidence.

Sadly, we saw the same pattern in the previous Parliament, as Labor stonewalled in the face of gathering evidence about corruption and criminality in the Health Services Union.

Labor MP and former HSU official Craig Thomson misspent tens of thousands of dollars of the union's money – on lavish entertainment, on travel, and on prostitutes – and used HSU resources extensively in his 2007 campaign for the seat of Dobell.

HSU East president Michael Williamson was convicted of fraud and sentenced to jail.

In the interests of ordinary union members, we need to get to the bottom of these issues. That is why the work of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption is so important.

Labor politicians' frenzied attacks on the royal commission in 2015 – much like those by BLF officials in 1982 – raise the obvious question: what are they trying to hide?