There are calls for Craig Thomson to stand down over the fact a FWA report has found that he misused some $500,000 of members money during his time as National Secretary of the HSU

Let's be clear I'm not asserting any of what he has said is true, only that it's reasonable

This $500k is made up of the following:

• $6k on hookers

• $200k to hire two staff members to work on his 2007 election campaign

• $100k of "unexplained" cash advances

• $200k of direct expenditure on his 2007 election campaign

Now let's look at each of these in isolation

$100k of cash advances unaccounted for:
He claims he did provide receipts / explanations for this expenditure.

Belinda Or (The financial controller of the office) also stated in her interviews with FWA that this was the practice.

Yet the current management of HSU claims there are no receipts when FWA asked to see them.

Kathy Jackson is currently the National Secretary of the HSU and took over the job from Craig Thomson

It is reasonable to accept that Thomson provided receipts (confirmed by independent witness) and that KJ was in the best position to have made those receipts disappear.

Claims of hiring two staff and spending $200k of direct expenses is his bid to win Dobell in 2007

First of all CT conceeds that this amount of money was spent for this purpose so the real issue lies around whether or not he was authorised to make this expenditure

The rules of the HSU are pretty clear on this but bascially what they say is the National Secretary is authorised to spend money on the general administration of the Union providing he has permission from the Union Council, the Executive or the Union President between meetings of these two councils.

FACT:  The Council of the HSU National Executive is controlled by Michael Williamson.  The representation of the Council is determined proportioanally by the size of the memberships of the respective state branches.  MW's branch held the majority of the members, therefore his branch provided most of the money to the National Office and, as such, had control of the National Office Council

MW was also the National President with the capacity to give the National Secretary permission to expense money for any purpose on behalf of the national union

MW told Craig Thomson to spend "Whatever he needs to" to win the seat of Dobell.  It was a political imperative that CT won that seat and that the Union movement do whatever it could to get John Howard out of government

The ENTIRE Executive of the union knew this was the case, the ENTIRE Council of the union knew this was the case, the NSW ALP leant on MW heavily to ensure that this was the case, Unions NSW leant on MW heavily to ensure this was the case and the ACTU leant on MW heavily to ensure this was the case.  This was the case.

It is reasonable to assume that Craig Thomson as National Secretary of the HSU was authorised to spend that $400k on getting himself elected to the seat of Dobell in 2007

Craig Thomson spent union money securing the services of hookers

There are a few issues around this.

Is it reasonable to assume that Marco Bolano would have threatened people in this manner?

Bolano is well know as Kathy Jackson's hard man, there is probably not a person involved in ALP politics in Victoria who he hasn't threatened with something or another at various times.  Hell he's even been known to go the punch a few times during union meetings.  The guy's a thug and a bully and we can reasonable assume he would have issued threats of this nature

But who could pull off such an elaborate conspiracy?

Charging this onto a credit card - easy - all you need is the number and a willing merchant - I know in my place of work if I wanted to get the bosses credit card number it would be a simple matter of spending two seconds looking for it.  Same for the drivers licence number, in fact, you provide this number to you employer when you apply to get the credit card as part of the identification requirements.

It's reasonable to assume KJ/MB has access to these details

It's reasonable to assume it would be relatively easy to find a merchant who ran escort / hooker services and convince them to put through $6k in charges to some credit card numbers, hell even give them the licence number of the person who's name is on the card in case it is ever questioned.  You might be a regular client and brothel owners are hardly known for their scrupples ...

How about those phone records - pushing reality there surely?

Well not really, any half compentent IT professional could clone a SIM card, it isn't that hard.  The fact is the National Office of the HSU isn't an office at all - it's has space in a few of the state branches of the union and only employs 2/3 staff members.

They don't have their own IT systems, they piggy back off the existing structures of the state Branches.  Do you know where the National Office of the HSU was located at the time of all this?  Would you believe the office of the Victorian Number 3 branch (which would later merge with NSW / Vic Number 1 to form HSUEast) - and who was Secretary of Vic No 3 at the time?  Why none other than Kathy Jackson!

The fact is that branch issued CT with his phone, think about that for a minute, they had his phone before they gave it to him for his use as National Secretary.

Michael Williamson owns the IT company which provides IT services to both Vic No 3 branch, NSW Branch and the National Office of the HSU - the man had an army of IT professionals at his disposal.

It is not unreasonable to assume that CT's SIM card could have been cloned prior to him receiving the phone for his use as National Secretary

All in all the case Craig Thomson has presented litters the assertions in the FWA report with so much reasonable doubt they become unreasonable IMNSHO

angeleyes wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 12:02pm:


If you've got the SIM card it's easy - you just take a copy of the card

"GSM SIM cards are actually copied by removing the SIM card and placing a device between the handset and the SIM card and allowing it to operate for a few days and extracting the KI, or secret code"

I believe there were 181 breaches found by the FWA.

Your attempt to use the amounts to trivialise this issue is pathetic

PoliticalReality wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:04pm:


Not only that but he also lied about someone had signed for his credit card i.e. fraud

Facts are the NSW police looked at the matter and they concluded that he had signed for his credit card

So he didn't have the authority but also lied about spending the money as well

Maqqa wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:10pm:


Taking the spin off what happened with this NSW Police investigation and reducing it to actual facts.

KJ took a complaint to the NSW Police that Craig Thomson had frauduently used his Union Credit Card to secure the services of hookers in NSW

The NSW police concluded that there was no way Craig Thomson could have committed a crime in NSW as 1. It is legal to use hookers in NSW and 2. He was the authorised user of this card.

They did NOT investigate whether someone else used his card, as this is not what they were asked to investigate.

They then concluded that IF there was a crime committed it was in Victoria where the National Office is situated, it is now a year later and we still haven't had anything come of that investigation by the Victorian Police - why are they taking so long with what should be a simple case?

Karnal wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:11pm:


No one's claiming access to the Drivers License - only access to the number and you know what, I'm the Administrator and (identity) Verifying Officer of our company's Corporate Credit Cards and I DO have copies of every person's Drivers License who has one of those cards.

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If it was cloned by the people who issued the phone before they gave it to him then we're only talking about 5 phones calls several of which were made when Craig Thomson was in a different location and some when he's in a different state ...

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Or you could leak the information to the press or make complaints to the NSW and Vic police as the new National Secretary of the Union - sound like anyone we know?

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No doubt he's guilty of poor governance but most Unions are - they're not businesses run by professionals.  Any organisation which is run by the people who are elected to the post generally lack these

Craig Thomson has clearly said he signed off on the expenses without really knowing what they were. Is that bad?  Sure - is it criminal?  Hardly

He said that MB/KJ threatened to set him up, he didn't say that he believed them at the time, which is evident by the lack luster way he went about managing his affairs as the National Secretary


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The ACTU / Unions NSW have a lot to answer for because all they did is protect themselves to the detriment of innocent HSU Members.

In fact Unions NSW had the hide to kick the HSUEast out and is now holding meetings for HSUEast members getting them to sign petitions asking for the Executive to resign.

Bascially playing up to members so they can influence them at a later date once the branch is placed into administration so their preferred candidate can be elected to run HSUEast

All their interested in is using HSU Members money to further their politcal end

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  I haven't mentioned the LNP, they've used the situation to their benefit but I think it's clear that it's KJ behind the whole thing - I think she's doing it with support from the LNP but she's definitely behind it and ultimately she doesn't care about Craig Thomson, her target is HSUEast and Michael Williamson, she wants complete control of that branch and the 40,000 members @ $600 a year that comes with it.

Putting pressure on Thomson and Williamson at the same time was undoubtably the best strategy should could have employed to do this - and guess what it's working
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You as much as admit in your opening paragraph that the expenditure of the vast majority of the money is not an issue, this leaves us with $6k that's been misused and he has provided a defence on this - he doesn't need to prove it, he's not a police agengcy with investigative powers, he has no means to prove it and you know what?  In this country you don't have to prove you're innocent - the authorities need to prove you're guilty

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You are wasting your breath there. These idiots wont acknowledge that. Its been pointed out over and over.

SOB

PoliticalReality wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:54pm:


The number? When you're verifying your credit card, you need the plastic. The license was photo ID. A photocopy is not going to cut it.

PoliticalReality wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:54pm:


Unions file tax returns and require annual audits like any other business. How could they possibly ignore $500,000 of mistaken spending - or even $6000?

PoliticalReality wrote on May 24^th, 2012 at 1:54pm:


If he wants to defend his record, he needs to prove it. The very fact that he's in this position means that he needs to prove it. The standing of the government and the labour movement as a whole has been tarnished by it. Even more reason to prove it. The stakes are huge.

I'm not saying he's guilty of a crime. But do you really think that spending union money on a federal campaign is legit? Some of it maybe. After all, it was a campaign against Workchoices.

But half a million?

It's not good enough to say that he didn't break the law. This is an example of unbelievable recklessness. Worse - it's blatant exploitation.

The union paid for a house in Sydney when he lived an hour and a half away on the Central Coast. The union paid for his wife's holidays. The union paid for his ridiculous annual salary, and he put every other living expense he incurred on his credit card.

But that wasn't enough. He got the nod to stand for a federal seat, and he put his campaign on the card as well.

And somewhere in the process, other things got whacked on - $6000 for prostitutes. And he approved it.

How can you possibly defend this? How can you say he doesn't need to prove anything?

Even the most rusted-on Labor hack understands he's been caught with his hand in the till and needs to go.

The Craig Thomson "affair" will go down in history as the Khemlani affair of the Gillard government.

Even the Khemlani loans affair was understandable. The Whitlam government needed foreign money during a recession to develop Australian resources.

Craig Thomson needed money - for what?