A senior union leader says Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne are sailing close to contempt of the unions royal commission.
Bob Nanva, national secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, said the prime minister and acting workplace minister had appointed themselves "de facto counsels assisting" by going through evidence in parliament and media conferences.
"The commissioner is entitled to ask whether they have breached the Royal Commissions Act 1902, under which it is a criminal offence to use speech which is any manner guilty of any intentional contempt of a royal commission," he told AAP on Wednesday.
"At the very least, Pyne and Abbott have tested the spirit and intent of the Act by using the royal commission for their own cynical political purposes."
The fact that the unions inquiry was set up by the prime minister without the "moral authority" of a bipartisan royal commission, such as that into institutional responses to abuse, made it all the more important to "stay above the political cut and thrust".
"It is about time that the commission sent a strong message to all politicians to pull their heads in so it can do its job," Mr Nanva said.
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