The federal coalition is ramping up pressure on Labor leader Bill Shorten by bringing on a vote on a bill to crack down on union corruption.
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne will in the lower house on Tuesday push for the vote on legislation to set up a new watchdog, the Registered Organisations Commission.
The independent commission would be empowered to investigate union corruption, armed with increased civil penalties and new criminal offences for serious misconduct.
A similar bill was passed in the lower house in July 2014 but failed in the Senate in March this year.
Mr Shorten, the former Victorian and national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, is set to give evidence to the ongoing Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption on July 8.
Mr Pyne said Mr Shorten should use the debate on the registered organisations bill to tell the parliament what he knew about alleged deals between the AWU and companies to pay union members' fees.
"The leader of the opposition will have the opportunity ... to show his bona fides on whether he supports honest union officials or whether he supports dodgy union officials," Mr Pyne told parliament on Monday.
Mr Shorten says it's possible a construction company paid the union dues of its workers while he was an AWU boss but it "wasn't the practice of the union as its preferred model".
Talks are under way with crossbench senators to pass the bill.
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has asked, on behalf of a number of crossbenchers, to see a confidential volume of the royal commission's interim report to inform her thinking.
The prime minister's department is considering the request.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari said the government was engaged in a "desperate smear campaign" against Mr Shorten.
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