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Bill Shorten's praetorian guard has returned fire following a call from former ALP national secretary Bob Hogg for the Labor leader to resign, circulating news stories from 1991 about Mr Hogg's own court appearance for failing to disclose political donations.
The stories note Mr Hogg was placed on a $1000, six-month good-behaviour bond for failing to declare individual donations of less than $1000 to the Labor Party ahead of the 1990 election - an amount totalling almost $143,000.
The court did not proceed to conviction, accepting Mr Hogg's explanation at the time that it was purely an oversight.
He told SBS TV in October 1991 that "it makes me look a little bit of a dill, but we all are, sometimes".
Mr Hogg, in a letter on social media posted Wednesday night and reported by Fairfax Media on Thursday, called for Mr Shorten to resign, accusing him of failing to understand the concept of conflict of interest.
Mr Hogg attacked Mr Shorten after the Labor leader on Wednesday admitted he had failed for eight years to reveal that a labour hire company had paid the salary of his campaign director in the 2007 election campaign.
The company had been involved at the time in negotiations with the Australian Workers Union for a new enterprise bargaining agreement for its workers, the royal commission into trade unions was told.
Mr Shorten told the royal commission he had not been involved in the enterprise bargaining negotiations with the company, Unibilt, as it had been handled by the Victorian branch of the AWU.
He also denied that he had used his former position as AWU national secretary to gain an advantage for himself by having the company pay for his campaign director, and apologised for failing to declare the $40,000 donation to the Australian Electoral Commission until last week.
Within an hour of the story appearing on Fairfax Media websites, an email containing the 1991 news stories about Mr Hogg's court appearance was sent by sources close to Mr Shorten.
Mr Hogg has a long history in the inner circles of the Labor Party. He was Victorian secretary of the ALP from 1976-78, was a senior adviser to prime minister Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1986, advised Victorian premier John Cain 1986-1987 and was ALP national secretary from 1988-93.
He is also married to former Labor MP Maxine McKew.
Mr Hogg dismissed the view of some other ALP figures that Mr Shorten's evidence during his first day's appearance at the royal commission added up to little of consequence.
"Really?" he wrote. "His campaign director was paid for by a company whose employees were covered by Bill's AWU, and therefore, as union members, deserved their interest to be protected to the maximum.
"The payment wasn't declared until Bill was reminded eight years later: a real lapse of memory, sloppy book-keeping or a hope no-one would notice. Take your pick."
He finished his letter with a call for Mr Shorten's head.
"Bill, do something for the ALP. It's simple," Mr Hogg wrote.
"Just go."
Mr Shorten is facing more questions before the royal commission on Thursday. The hearing continues.
