Bill Shorten, former Labor leader and federal politician, has flexed his muscle to intimidate and/or as payback against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese by doing an interview last Friday which was used by opposition leader Peter Dutton to attack Albanese over tariff strategy.

Make no mistake, Bill Shorten knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew his interview would be used by Peter Dutton to attack Albanese.

What was Bill Shorten’s motive? Firstly, I thought it was as payback for Bill Shorten being run out of politics when he lost his powerbase as his key supporters are facing legal action of stealing $millions and possibly facing criminal charges.

But on further consideration it became obvious Shorten is trying to close down the Fair Work Commission’s civil proceedings against Shorten’s crime gang and his is also trying to undermine the federal government’s takeover of the CFMEU.

I outlined the matter in the below video which I published on Monday (17/3/25)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s strategy to deal with the US putting a 25% tariff on Australian steel and aluminium is to keep lobbying the US government to drop the tariff and to tell Australians to buy Australian products instead of US products.

Bill Shorten, who left politics in January this year and is now Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra on $860,000-a-year, gave an interview last Friday (14/3/25) and said words to the effect that “if the US keep putting tariffs we have to reciprocate and do the same dollar for dollar” as per the above video.

It doesn’t matter whether Bill Shorten is right or wrong. His motive was to flex his muscle and embarrass Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and it worked because Peter Dutton jumped on it.

Peter Dutton said words to the effect “If Bill Shorten believes Anthony Albanese is out of his depth and doesn’t know what to do then Australians are right in drawing the same conclusion”, as per the above video, and that is exactly the outcome Bill Shorten was hoping for.

Background to Bill Shorten’s motivation to embarrass Anthony Albanese

On the 19th of January 2025 I published an article titled “Bill Shorten resigned from parliament only days after his crime gang charged with stealing $2.7million. Coincidence?”

Bill Shorten finishes up as a Federal MP on Monday (20/1/25) but he announced his retirement on the 5th of September 2024 only days after his crime gang at the Health Workers Union were charged by the Fair Work Commission on the 23rd of August 2024 with stealing $2.7 million from some of the lowest paid workers in the country.

There are numerous people sitting behind Bill Shorten ripping off workers and committing crimes with his support and knowledge and I refer to them as Bill Shorten’s crime gang, but recent court documents refer to them as the Asmar Gang.

With Bill Shorten’s crime gang facing civil prosecution for stealing $millions, and likely criminal charges, it was clearly time for Bill to go as Shorten no longer had a power base in the Labor Party. (Click here to read more)

I published a video version of the article I just quoted from on the 19/1/25 titled “The real reason Bill Shorten resigned” as per below: 

Is Bill Shorten’s timing linked to the CFMEU story on 60 minutes on Sunday?

On the 1st of October 2024 the SMH published an article titled “Union official claims ‘Asmar gang’ created slush fund to influence Labor appointments” which starts off:

An allegedly corrupt Victorian union boss has been accused of forging close ties to backroom Labor operatives and disgraced union boss John Setka while running a secret slush fund to influence the selection of state and federal ALP candidates and policies.

The commission is also investigating why ex-CFMEU boss John Setka sent $180,000 in members’ fees to the ghost-printing scheme now being probed by police.

Eden names the “Asmar gang” members as Setka, David Asmar and veteran ALP political operative Andrew Landeryou, the husband of Labor senator Kimberly Kitching, who died in 2022. Of that group, only David Asmar is being investigated by the Fair Work Commission.

Eden also alleges that Asmar boasted about her links to senior Labor minister Bill Shorten, who also formerly employed David Asmar in his electorate office. (Click here to read more)

Summary

Bill Shorten’s supporters and close associates are in big trouble in the Fair Work Commission case against them for $2.7 million and Shorten has been named in an affidavit before the court so Shorten would want that case to disappear.

Ex-CFMEU boss John Setka is also linked to Bill Shorten’s crime gang in the Fair Work Commission matter and Setka also has big issues with the federal government taking over the CFMEU with part of the corruption issues being exposed on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

So, maybe Shorten is also trying to help Setka out as well by pressuring the government to backpedal in their takeover of the CFMEU.

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