Bruce Wilson arrives at the royal commission into trade unions. Photo: Nick Moir

Julia Gillard's former boyfriend and national construction officials are among union figures facing criminal charges for acts of alleged fraud, intimidation and coercion under recommendations of the the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.

Commissioner Dyson Heydon's has recommended Ms Gillard's former boyfriend Bruce Wilson and his former Australian Workers Union colleague, Ralph Blewitt, face conviction for their fraudulent use of a secret slush fund.

'No grounds for prosecuting': former prime minister Julie Gillard has escaped and adverse finding. Photo: Peter Rae

He said there were no grounds for prosecuting Ms Gillard, but agreed with counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar's submission, that her conduct as a solicitor had been "questionable".

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He said Mr Blewitt and Mr Wilson should be charged and prosecuted by Victorian and West Australian authorities for alleged crimes including obtaining financial advantage by deception. 

Justice Heydon has also recommended that the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions consider criminal charges against some CFMEU officials. He said Darren Greenfield, from the union's NSW branch, should be charged and prosecuted by the Commonwealth and NSW authorities for using a telephone to make death threats to his former colleague, Brian Fitzpatrick. 

Bruce Wilson "must have possessed immense charm": Justice Dyson Heydon

NSW CFMEU boss Brian Parker was also criticised for gross misbehaviour and gross neglect of his duty and "should be removed from office". 

Victorian authorities were urged to prosecute CFMEU officials from the Victoria branch: secretary John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon, for blackmail. Queensland CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar and assistant secretary, Peter Close, are also recommended to face prosecution for extortion and other matters. 

The royal commission heard allegations that Messrs Wilson and Blewitt channelled thousands of dollars from construction company Thiess, through the slush fund. It is alleged they received money for workplace safety training that was never delivered and that the money was inappropriately used for personal purposes, including the purchase of a house in Melbourne.

"Their desire was to set up a mechanism which would enable them to milk Thiess in secrecy," Justice Heydon said.

This desire, however, was unknown to Ms Gillard when she helped them incorporate the slush fund.

Justice Heydon said Mr Wilson "must have possessed immense charm" in 1991 and in 1992 when he and Blewitt established the secret slush fund, known as the Workplace Reform Fund, with the help of Ms Gillard's legal advice, when she was a solicitor at Slater and Gordon.

"That charm has not wholly fled from him even now, after more than 20 years' battering by failure and disappointment," Justice Heydon said.

"It is a measure of that charm that the hard-bitten and experienced Thiess executives, toughened in years of struggles with equally hardbitten union officials, proprietors and contractors, should have agreed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for so ill-defined a promise."

In rejecting the self-professed fraudster, Mr Blewitt's submission that Ms Gillard be charged with aiding and abetting or conspiracy to submit documents that falsely stated the purpose of the slush fund, he said "Julia Gillard believed that the purpose was to fund the re-election of officials".

"So far as the crime allegedly committed by Ralph Blewitt and Bruce Wilson concerns a false representation that there was an unincorporated association in existence at the time application was made for the incorporation, there is insufficient evidence to establish that she knowingly permitted Ralph Blewitt to file the application in the manner he did and to establish that she knew what was in the certificate," he said.

But when it came to her work as a solicitor, he said the evidence generally supports the inference that the "arrangements between Julia Gillard and her clients were casual and haphazard, not precise and detailed".

"Apart from the absence of any written retainer, Julia Gillard did not keep file notes. She did not keep any record of the instructions she received from, nor the advice which she testified that she provided to, Bruce Wilson and Ralph Blewitt. In fact she tended to refer to advice she 'would have' given, rather than the advice she actually gave.

"Julia Gillard did not open a file on the Slater & Gordon computer system (which if nothing else would have assisted in keeping the relevant records intact).

"This compounded the problem caused by a lack of other records.

"This informality may have sprung from the fact that she was in a personal relationship with the main person from whom she took instructions."

The Commonwealth DPP has also been urged to consider criminal charges against a range of Health Services Union officials for making false statements. 

Justice Heydon said a volume of his interim report that deals with threats to witnesses "reveals grave threats to the power and authority of the Australian state." 

The CFMEU issued a statement saying the Royal Commission is not a court of law and does not exercise judicial power. 

"Its interim report makes no specific recommendations for legislative change and does not make any findings of corruption against any CFMEU official," the statement said. 

"The Royal Commission does not conclude that any CFMEU official 'has engaged in conduct that was a breach of the law.' Instead the Commissioner recommends that his findings be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and other agencies in order for them to 'consider' whether such breaches have occurred and if any action should be taken. 

"Like previous Royal Commissions, the Heydon Commission is politically motivated to produce outcomes to justify the introduction of anti union laws. "

"This is clear from the prejudiced and biased findings of the Royal Commission that reflect the ideological bent of the Abbott Government and their hatred of unions."