An ex-union official at the centre of the trade unions royal commission has changed his evidence about a secret recording of a discussion about document shredding.
Ex-CFMEU divisional president David Hanna on Tuesday confirmed the veracity of the recording that implicates the CFMEU in shredding documents needed for the inquiry.
This was despite him playing down the secret recording, captured at Brisbane Airport's Qantas lounge last July, during his evidence on Monday.
Mr Hanna initially told the commission he was embellishing the role his rival, then-CFMEU divisional state secretary Michael Ravbar, had played in the disposal of union documentation on April 1, 2014, the day the union received subpoenas ordering it to produce certain paperwork.
But he changed his evidence on Tuesday, telling the commission he felt he was ambushed with the recording a day earlier.
"I had the opportunity to get my thoughts together overnight," Mr Hanna said.
The airport lounge recording heard Mr Hanna telling CFMEU assistant national secretary Leo Skourdoumbis that he'd shown a tip truck receipt to CFMEU national secretary Michael O'Connor in order to show Ravbar in a bad light.
The receipt was for the removal of the shredded documents.
Mr Hanna on Monday said he didn't have a receipt.
But, once again, he changed his evidence a day later, telling the commission the receipt was initially in his name, but he doctored it to display Mr Ravbar's name because he was the one who ordered the documents to be destroyed.
"I copied it (the receipt) on my photocopier at home without my name on it and wrote Michael's name on it," Mr Hanna said.
Mr Skourdoumbis said he knew Mr Hanna as a liar and didn't take seriously what he'd told him in the airport lounge.
The commission is also examining who paid for work done by tradies at Mr Hanna's property in Cornubia, south of Brisbane.
There are allegations the costs were billed to Mirvac's Orion retail development at Springfield shopping centre.
The inquiry before Commissioner Dyson Heydon QC, continues.
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