The ROC found that $263,500 of political donations made by the AWU when Shorten was national secretary – including $25,000 channelled to his own election campaign when he first ran for parliament in 2007 – were not approved by the union, as required by law.
All up, the ROC identified 20 occasions when the union breached a rule requiring the AWU national executive’s authorisation for every donation above $1000. This rule applies to all unions, under federal law.
