Nothing wrong with union donations: Vic MP

Victorian shadow attorney-general Martin Pakula has admitted receiving more than $12,000 in campaign donations from a union-backed organisation but says there's nothing wrong with what he did.

Mr Pakula says he has received donations from IR21 Limited, an organisation that raises money through contributions from National Union of Workers members, including thousands of dollars from himself.

The royal commission into trade union corruption has investigated the relationship between the NUW and IR21.

A submission to the commission heard three branches of the NUW contributed to the organisation, whose governing rules allowed for payments to be made to NUW members for state election campaigns, News Corp Australia's Herald Sun has reported.

But Mr Pakula denied claims IR21, which was set up in 2003 when he was NUW secretary, was a slush fund and said it raised and spent money legitimately and transparently.

"Put the word slush in front of anything and it sounds nefarious," he told ABC radio on Friday.

"It has made donations to political campaigns including mine over the years and, I've got to say, I've also received donations from unions directly and there's nothing wrong with that."

He later told Fairfax Radio that unions had a right to be involved in political debate in the same ways as companies that donated shareholder funds to both Labor and Liberal campaigns.

But the government says workers contribute to unions to have their support in workplace advocacy matters, not for political campaigns.

"This is union contributions," Liberal Planning Minister Matthew Guy told Fairfax Radio.

"These are meant to be a workplace advocacy union and here we have them contributing to a number of (areas), whether it's political campaigns, or effectively being used as an ATM."