Labor needs to tame or expel its corrupt union affiliates

To start with, the unions think they own the ALP, as they told Commissioner Heydon.

They have good grounds for this belief. Not only do they have half the votes at ALP conferences, but virtually all members of parliament are also members of a union, and they are the major funders funnelling millions of dollars each year directly to the ALP.

This is part of the trend of the increasing corporatisation of politics where memberships are tending to decline relatively and absolutely, and party structures are dominated by careerists informed and advised by pollsters rather than party elders.

So they are really the shareholders in what is supposed to be a democratic party with their stake in the party directly determined by the number of members they affiliate.

And, as the commission has shown, membership numbers are often a fiction, with workers signed-up to unions under deals where employers pay the fees unbeknownst to the "member".

But it doesn't stop there. Unions donate to all sorts of third party organisations. For example, not only are the unions "shareholders" in the ALP, but QCU invested $50,000 in the Australian Solar Council last election. They even fund the Greens (a total of $567,766 in 2013-14).

In the Redcliffe by-election, when spending caps applied, the LNP was outspent 7 to 1. The parties spent equal amounts each, but other bodies, including trade unions, spent the rest.

The Hawke "union accord" which coalesced smaller unions into large super unions is partly to blame. Keating also gave them access to financial power by creating the compulsory superannuation industry.

Now union-run super funds provide hefty top ups to union official salaries, providing career paths which attract tertiary educated careerists to working class unions.

And unlike any other business they are able to collude, in breach of the trade practices act. They are also frequently conflicted, representing workers at the same time as they take money from their bosses for so-called training courses.

Attempts to tame unions, like the Australian Building and Construction Commission, have been reversed by subsequent ALP administrations.

There is a cash for votes problem in this country, and most of it currently lies on the Labor side.