Key moments, revelations at unions probe

KEY MOMENTS AND REVELATIONS:

JULIA GILLARD

- former PM faces commission in September 2014

- answer questions about slush fund run by her one-time union boss boyfriend when she was a lawyer doing work for the AWU in the early 1990s

- asked whether illicit cash had paid for renovations on her home

- commissioner found she had done nothing wrong.

BILL SHORTEN

- fronted commission in July 2015

- answered 900-plus questions about when he led AWU

- damaging allegations about payments to union by Thiess John Holland during wage negotiations

- failed to declare a $40,000 2007 electoral donation until days before the commission

- donation in the form of a research officer for his electoral campaign, paid for by Unibilt, a labour hire firm owned by Edward Lockyer

- Lockyer says money didn't appear in Unibilt's records as a donation to the Labor Party because of sloppy accounting

- Shorten's wordy answers earns warning by Commissioner Dyson Heydon about his "credibility as a witness"

- commission clears Shorten at 8.07pm on a Friday night in November, angering Labor and unions

COMMISSIONER HEYDON

- August report reveals Heydon had agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser, but cancelled his attendance

- triggers protests of bias - commission already labelled a political witch hunt by its opponents

- Heydon rejects ALP and ACTU demands he resign

- threatened legal challenge from unions doesn't eventuate

KATHY JACKSON

- Former Health Services Union national secretary once praised as hero by ex-PM Tony Abbott for blowing whistle on corruption in her union and triggering events that put her boss, HSU general secretary Michael Williamson, in jail for fraud

- vocal critic of Williamson and former HSU official-turned Labor MP Craig Thomson, both found guilty of taking union funds

- it emerges Jackson had been on her own spending spree with union money

- in August 2014, Jackson claims she was "ambushed" by evidence showing she gave $50,000 from a union slush fund to her ex-husband

GEORGE ALEX

- Sydney underworld and construction industry figure George Alex questioned about his interaction with CFMEU officials

- denied Australian jihadis Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf - since killed in Iraq - were muscle, they did boxing training at his house because it offered privacy

- also denied suggestions he made $2500 payments to CFMEU official Darren Greenfield

JOHN LOMAX

- CFMEU organiser and former rugby league player John Lomax arrested and charged with blackmail after evidence he made demands on a Canberra subcontractor

- charges dropped in October

SLUSH FUNDS, FIGHTING FUNDS, TRAINING FUNDS

- many types of union-related funds operated by union officials contained a lot of cash

- funds for various purposes - including union elections, training and education - and with varying levels of transparency

- slush fund run by Gillard's one-time AWU boss boyfriend Bruce Wilson received about $2000 a week from construction firm Thiess, without the AWU's knowledge, in 1992

- former NWU NSW boss Derrick Belan controlled a slush fund for union elections holding more than $25,000 built from $50-a-week contributions from union officials

- the NSW branch hadn't had a contested election since 2002, account closed in 2013, and the money ended up in Belan's home safe, even after he was no longer the branch boss

DERRICK BELAN

- Belan resigned from 14-year role as NUW NSW secretary after being summoned to the commission

- ordered to his hearing from a psychiatric hospital

- image of his parents, tattooed on his right calf, paid for with his union credit card

- other items charged to Belan's union card, including lavish gifts, Tiffany jewellery, dating website fees and a cruise holiday

- denied committing fraud or asking anyone to do so on his behalf.