Royal commission into trade unions has scope and time frame extended after request from inquiry chief Dyson Heydon

Updated

The Federal Government has agreed to broaden the scope of the royal commission into trade unions and give it an extra year to run its inquiries to deal with "unfinished business".

The head of the commission, former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, has written to Attorney-General George Brandis pointing out the constraints of the original reporting date of December this year.

"It is true that it has not been possible in the short time available ... to identify every piece of conduct falling within the commission's terms of reference," Mr Heydon wrote.

He also said it would be "desirable" to close a gap in the commission's terms of reference to ensure actions such as interfering with witnesses could be examined.

"The inquiry thus far has revealed evidence of criminal conduct, which includes widespread instances of physical and verbal violence, cartel conduct, secondary boycotts, contempt of court and other institutional orders and the encouragement of others to commit these contempts," Mr Heydon said in his letter.

"Some officials appear to regard their unions as having immunity not only from the norms and sanctions of the Australian legal system but also from any social or community standard shared by other Australians."

Senator Brandis has written to the Governor-General formally requesting the changes be made.

"It is very apparent from what Mr Heydon says in his letter is that there is a large amount of unfinished business before the royal commission," Senator Brandis said.

"It is very plain that the problem of criminality and the associations between certain unions and certain union officials and crime is a much more widespread problem than appeared to be the case when, at the beginning of this year, the Government decided to establish the royal commission."

The royal commission, which was established in March, will now run until December 2015.

It will deliver an interim report on December 14 this year, which Senator Brandis said would be made public.

The extension will cost an additional $8 million, bringing the total cost of the commission to $61 million.

Mr Heydon wrote to the Attorney-General last Thursday detailing the commission's work.

He said the letter was "not an application to extend the reporting date".

ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons said that called into question the motivations behind the Government's decision.

"This is a political decision by the Attorney General and the Prime Minister to extend this out into further election seasons when they have been told by the person they asked to do the job that it's unnecessary," he told PM.

The new deadline means the Government could release the report in 2016 - when the next federal election is set to be called.

Labor says Brandis needs to justify decision

The Federal Opposition said the Attorney-General needed to justify the decision.

"This extension doesn't change what this royal commission is - a desperate and shameless use of executive power for the Government's own political advantage," shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said in a statement.

"It's not clear from Commissioner Heydon's letter that the royal commission requested an extension of time or additional resources.

"Senator Brandis needs to justify his decision to provide additional funding if the royal commission didn't request it.

"Any criminal behaviour, whether in a union or in a private company, should be a matter for the police to investigate, not a matter for politicians."

But Senator Brandis said it was "not about politics".

"This is about the criminal law and the compliance by important and powerful institutions in our society and economy with the law," he said.

The Opposition also pointed to the speed with which the Government has granted the extension compared to its reaction to a request for more time from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

While Senator Brandis has responded just five days after receiving the letter from Mr Heydon, Labor said it took the Government two months to respond to a request from the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Last month, former prime minister Julia Gillard gave evidence responding to allegations relating to a union slush fund that she has always strenuously denied.

Topics: unions, government-and-politics, royal-commissions, law-crime-and-justice, australia

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