The ineluctable fact now being absorbed by union leaders is that practices seen as normal in the self-referential world of labour movement politics are about to be gauged against broader community standards.

The royal commission process will adduce evidence relating to criminal behaviour by some officials and employers, but it will also bring to the surface murky dealings such as union use of off-book accounts for electioneering purposes (sometimes even within other unions) known more commonly as slush funds.

Slush funds like the one set up by certain AWU officials in the 1990s through the offices of Slater & Gordon lawyers, and their designated solicitor, Julia Gillard. But there are others funds, too.