Bill Shorten's union took $100,000's from building company, page-14

Mark Arbib denies calling Bill Shorten untrustworthy


A FORMER ALP powerbroker has firmly denied ever labelling Bill Shorten untrustworthy, after explosive claims were aired last night.
Mark Arbib, then a Labor senator but now out of Parliament, told news.com.au: “It didn’t happen.”
The claims surrounding the opposition leader were aired on the ABC series The Killing Season.
Mr Shorten declined to appear in the program, but archive footage was used showing his role in the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister in June 2010.
At a critical point in last night’s episode, a former Gillard adviser claimed he was warned by Mark Arbib that Mr Shorten could not be trusted.

The adviser, Gerry Kitchener, recounted what he said was a discussion with the then senator on a prospective ministry.
“He then went through and had a rant about Kevin Rudd and how he couldn’t be allowed in the ministry,” recalled Mr Kitchener.
“And then he came down to Bill Shorten’s name and he said that you couldn’t trust Bill Shorten, that he would do Julia in, that the one thing she couldn’t do was ever give him industrial relations cause he’d use it to solidify the union base to knock her off.”
But Mr Arbib today said, “The thing with Kitchener … it never happened. It didn’t happen.”
ALP sources today further questioned Kitchener’s claims, doubting there would be discussions about a new ministry on the night before a challenge when the important issue was getting the numbers. And they questioned whether Mr Kitchener would have been involved in ministry discussions if they had been held.
In another part of the program, Nicholas Reece — who in 2010 was the ALP secretary in Mr Shorten’s home state of Victoria — said the former AWU leader had used his contacts to bolster support for Gillard to challenge Mr Rudd. He said Shorten had partnered with then Victorian senator David Feeney.
“Shorten and Feeney were very significant in the change. Once the leadership challenge was brought on they did swing in behind Gillard in a very big way and campaigned very strongly for her among the Caucus and shifted large numbers of votes behind Julia Gillard,” Mr Reece told the program.
Both Mr Arbib and Mr Shorten declined to be interviewed for the ABC program and Mr Arbib today said he would not comment further.
Those who were interviewed made clear Mr Shorten was important in get votes for Ms Gillard.
And the program featured at length a video of Mr Shorten eating at a Canberra restaurant — between frequent sessions on his mobile phone — on the night of the June 23 leadership showdown in Mr Rudd’s office.
The Government will not ignore the opposition leader’s appearance in last night’s second part of the political documentary. It is expected to point to Mr Shorten’s later support for Mr Rudd to remove Ms Gillard in 2013.
“It has been a very bad month for Bill Shorten and it is going to get worse,” said Assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs on Sky today.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work...en-untrustworthy/story-fn5tas5k-1227401857872