Thugs and bullies, It is up to a court to find out what sort of corruption has occurred if any. Dyson’s opinion is not enough evidence of anything. Abbott could have written that before the Royal Commission started. Why wasn’t it referred to the police instead of spending all of that money to find some thugs and bullies. School grounds are full of them. Union officials thieving from their own union, surely that could have been handled by police.
Now the police are going to start all over again to find out what thugs and bullies mean.

The difference 579 is in the rules of evidence.
A Royal Commission can demand answers to questions, it also can obtain
documents that police have to show evidence that certain documents
exist.
It can go on fishing expeditions that the police cannot.
It can only prosecute for refusing to answer.
I think that is the knub of it. I am no legal expert.

Foxy,

There is a potential for corruption in every organisation.

The most effective deterrent to corruption is to make governance transparent, to it difficult to be corrupt without being detected, and to make the punishment sufficiently severe.

For businesses these steps are in place, and while there are many corrupt businessmen, most get caught and are punished. However, for unions virtually none of these protections are in place.

What is needed to prevent corruption is to simply apply most of the protections that apply to companies to unions primarily:

Independent auditing of the books,
Annual financial report with minimum requirements
Rules on what money can be used for elections etc,
Enforcement of these laws by the same bodies that regulate companies, not the toothless FWA.
Strict rules on conflicts of interest such as:
-What services can be provided by unions to the employers they deal with
-A ban on these services being a requirement of an EBA,
-A ban on donations to unions from the employers

This is actually in the best interests of the unions themselves, as the rampant corruption is driving them to extinction.

Some workplaces pay union membership for their workers, as a course of negotiations. The unions will enjoy a fight to find anything other than being bullies and thugs, which was a foregone conclusion. Unions are not a profit making venture, they hold funds paid to the union by members for various activities, these activities are not in any textbook. No one knows what may arise at any particular time.
An organization set up by the workers to watch over their interests. As you may have noticed there has been no mass demonstrations against their own unions. Why do you think this is so.
No one likes renegades in the union internal structures, There lies a problem with the very top brass, taking liberties. Maybe the position at the top is held for to long a time.
Talks with union and business is mostly done without any written records as to whatever was talked about. It would be a hard ask to regulate unions as a business I can not see the relevance and do not think any such agreement would be reached between members and officials, of any significance. Before any conclusions are made we should find out what bullies and thugs mean in a court of law

Foxy: Let's hope that the Royal Commission will correct this misuse.

Not a chance in Hell. The BLF was shut down & made illegal. replaced by the CMFEU. The very same people managed the new Organization. That's what all these Organizations do.

Eg; About 1966/7 the ASCO ran the Canteens in service Establishments. There had been many complaints about their pricing & practices. I 1966 1 R.A.R came home from Vietnam. The Unit had set up it's own Unit Canteen & made 1 cent less then a million Dollars. ASCO demanded that the money be handed over to them. They lost that one. ASCO Went to Vietnam to the Task Force at Baria & in the first year supposedly made a million Dollar loss. There prices were very noticeably higher than the 1 R.A.R. Unit Canteen. An investigation found that ASCO had been ripping the Troops of for years. The Organization was closed down. AAFCANS was formed & provided for the Troops. Notably though, all the people that ran ASCO now ran AAFCANS. & AAFCANS has been ripping the Troops off ever since.

Cont.
I left the Army in 1969 & worked as a Barman. It was well known as the Wharfie's Pub. Now apparently if you are a registered Communist you couldn't be the President of the WWU. So they elected a little drunk guy as President & got him a job on the Wharf. He never ever set foot on the Wharf. They set him up every day at the Pub & he drank. The Wharfie's paid the Bill at the end of the day. They would have their meetings & push the paperwork in front of him to sign each day. One day one of the Wharfies got caught stealing a Transistor Radio. One of the little tiny ones when they first came out. He was charged. An investigation was done & all the Union Hierarchy was caught & Charged. They then had Rolling Strikes. Negotiation's were done & the Charges were dropped. The entire Union Hierarchy & a few others were suspended for 6 months. Then an entire container of white paint went missing. Investigations done & never found. But, strangely every Waterside Worker in Brisbane got their house painted White, for free, that year.

I just bet there are people here that relate to all that & have the same sort of horror stories.

I do believe they should have the same type of Royal Commission on influence the big Industry Giants have over the Liberal/National Parties. Now, that would be interesting.