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Staff in Tony Abbott's office closely monitored Bill Shorten's two-day appearance before the trade union royal commission in July, despite the then prime minister repeatedly claiming the hearing was not a "political plaything" designed to target the Opposition Leader.
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws reveal that on Wednesday, July 8, three staff members in the former prime minister's office accessed the commission's website home page a total of 19 times.
On the following day, four staff members in the office accessed the commission's website page another nine times.
And one political staffer in the Abbott office appears to have been glued to their desk for two consecutive days watching the commission's live video stream of Mr Shorten's evidence to commission, accessing the website five times on the Wednesday and twice more on the Thursday.
Both sides of politics closely monitor the others' media appearances, including press conferences, speeches and radio and TV interviews.
But the repeated accessing of the website by the Abbott office suggests a particular focus on from the office the hearings into Mr Shorten's time as leader of the Australian Workers Union.
While prime minister, Mr Abbott regularly insisted that, for example, "this royal commission is not a political plaything, it's actually the key to better unions, more honest unions, and a better, more honest Labor Party" and that it was exposing "rorts, rackets and rip-offs".
Counsel assisting the commission Jeremy Stoljar, SC recommended last week that no criminal charges be supported against Mr Shorten.
And Labor has regularly accused the commission, and Mr Abbott, of launching a political attack on the ALP by instigating the commission, while Commissioner Dyson Heydon has himself faced accusations of political bias after he agreeing to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser before withdrawing.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said it was no surprise the former Abbott government was "throwing everything they can at it to smear its political rivals".
"It goes to show how the government will trawl the gutter rather than do the job taxpayers pay them to do. Everyone knows the Liberal Party is in cahoots with the royal commission. It's why the royal commissioner was asked to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser."
Transport Workers Union Tony Sheldon, whose own union was also probed by the commission, said the hearings had been a waste of the TWU's money and resources and was "an affront to working families".
"The Transport Workers' Union was forced to spend more than $1 million in answering questions by the commission ...[but] the royal commission itself in a recent report said 'the TWU deserves commendation' for investigating and acting on improper conduct by officials in our Western Australia branch."
