Blewitt buried association cash: Wilson

28 Nov 2012, 8:44 am   -   Source: AAP
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard's former partner and union official Bruce Wilson says he did not financially benefit from a slush fund he jointly set up.

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Prime Minister Julia Gillard's former partner Bruce Wilson claims his union sidekick Ralph Blewitt buried in his backyard money held by a legal entity they set up together.

Mr Wilson denied he had acted fraudulently in regard to the entity established in 1992.

He admitted seeking legal advice from Ms Gillard, who he said advised the pair on how to register the association after he encountered "technical problems" during his own attempts.

Mr Wilson said he did not benefit financially from funds given by employers to the association, but agreed some funds were used to buy a house in Melbourne's Fitzroy that was subsequently registered in Mr Blewitt's name.

Asked who had later arranged the sale of the property, Mr Wilson said he didn't know.

Told Mr Blewitt had said he did not see any money from the sale of the house, Mr Wilson said: "That as I understand it is not true".

Asked where the money from the house sale and the association account had gone, Mr Wilson said some was sent back to the employers.

"The slush fund, as I said, in the same way I treated the house, I walked, I had nothing further to do with it," he told ABC television's 7.30 program.

Mr Wilson said Mr Blewitt had told him he had taken a series of deposits out of the association account and invested it in a fund.

"I subsequently found out that in fact Ralph had been accumulating the money at his place," he said.

"He had been, and I know this sounds crazy, but he had been packaging it up and burying it in his backyard of all things.

"How do I know that? He confessed at some stage and he also showed me a package of money that he ... had been destroyed.

"Obviously it had been in his garden or some such thing and it got moist and destroyed the money."

The PM told parliament she has dealt with allegations about a union slush fund in the 1990s "time and time again".

"This is smear, pure and simple," the prime minister said on Tuesday as she responded to opposition questions about who paid for renovations on her Melbourne home.

Ms Gillard said she believed Australians were sick of Mr Abbott and "his sleaze tactics."

The prime minister insisted she had done nothing wrong and no amount of smear "repeddled" would ever change that.

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