Simon Cringe, oops Crean has no issue with Craig Thomson as he is innocent until brought to justice. This seems to be the ALP mantra, our people are innocent until they are caught and charged, regardless of the evidence against them..
November 2007 - Craig Thomson, national secretary of the Health Services Union since 2002, wins the seat of Dobell in Labor’s federal election victory.
Investigation in progress over allegations of how the funds were made for his election process
January 2008 – Kathy Jackson takes over from Mr Thomson as general secretary of the HSU and finds accounts in the Melbourne office in disarray.
Accounts showed such fraudulent use of funds, she felt the need to have these investigated
May 2008 - An audit sent to Ms Jackson raises “concerns about evidence of misuse of union funds by Mr Thomson”.
July 2008 - Fair Work Australia asks the HSU what is happening with its 2007 financial return.
December 2008 – Ms Jackson writes to lawyers Slater and Gordon instructing them to engage tax specialists BDO Kendall to “conduct an investigation”.
April 2009 – FWA commences an inquiry into the union.
The key question is why is it this supposed watchdog never had a trained and experienced Investigator working there??
April 6 - Industrial registrar Doug Williams writes to Ms Jackson asking for the 2007 and 2008 accounts audited and signed.
April 7 – Ms Jackson tells Mr Williams of “possible financial irregularities revealed by the exit audit and ongoing BDO Kendall investigation”.
April 8 - Fairfax Media alleges Mr Thomson used his union credit cards to help fund his election campaign and pay for a number of personal expenses, including escort services.
April 9 – HSU Victorian secretary Jeff Jackson is accused by HSU state president Pauline Fegan of using his union credit card to pay more than $1400 over four months for escort services.
May 8, 2009 – HSU NSW secretary Michael Williamson confirms that none of the $53,000 allegedly spent by the union’s national office campaigning for Mr Thomson during the 2007 federal election was officially disclosed.
September 2009 - FWA interviews Ms Jackson.
March 2010 – FWA notifies the union’s national office that the inquiry has become an investigation.
Yet again, they have identified the matter is serious enough to warrant an Investigation after wasting a year on deciding this, and still they do not have a trained or experienced Investigator to conduct this Investigation.
August 1, 2011 - Mr Thomson says he authorised use of a credit card that receipts show was used at a Sydney outcall service on April 9, 2005; It has Mr Thomson’s signature and driver’s licence number on back and is in the amount of $2475. Receipts also show ATM withdrawals between November 13, 2002 and November 12, 2007 totalling $101,533.20.
Thomson’s mouthpiece lawyer claims he never signed the vouchers for these, although Thomson has admitted to doing it. I think Mr Mcardle needs to shut his mouth when accusing Mr Abbott of highlighting Thomson’s complicity
August 19 – Fairfax claims calls to escort services were made from hotel rooms hired by Mr Thomson while he was HSU secretary and that the calls were paid for on a union credit
If Fairfax and the hotel can verify this then I think Mr Mcardle needs to shut his mouth when accusing Mr Abbott of highlighting Thomson’s complicity
August 20 – Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and NSW premier Barry O’Farrell call on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to explain the Thomson saga.
August 24 – The HSU says it will fully cooperate with a NSW police investigation into Mr Thomson and calls on the Labor MP to publicly explain “financial irregularities” it has found.
August 25 - Federal Labor denies claims the government interfered in FWA’s ongoing investigation into the finances of the HSU.
If Federal Labor hadn’t then they should have sacked FWA’s management for failure to do their jobs efficiently and within a reasonable period of time. Therefore the Federal Government must be considered as complicit with the failure of this Department.
August 26 - Ms Jackson says she won’t be intimidated after a shovel is placed on the doorstep of her Melbourne home. Ms Gillard denies she knew about allegations surrounding Mr Thomson and his former union before the public did.
September 8, 2011 – NSW police drop their investigation into allegations Mr Thomson misused a union credit card, saying they had no evidence.
It appears the truth in this is that the alleged crime comes under Victorian jurisdiction and was referred appropriately
September 22 - Mr Williamson is suspended on full pay as HSU national president following allegations he embezzled union funds. Chris Brown is appointed acting national president a few days later.
November, 2011 – A motion of no confidence against Ms Jackson as HSU executive president is passed at the union’s annual conference. Ms Jackson vows to stay as head of the union until end of 2014.
March 14, 2012 - FWA’s investigation into HSU Victoria No 1 branch is completed. Three former officials are said to face Federal Court action.
One of these was apparently Craig Thomson. Strangely where this should have been a priority after a 3 year Investigation into this matter it was not until 7 May that FWA declared it had found Thomson guilty of misappropriation of Union funds.
April 3, 2012 - FWA says its investigations are complete. 181 alleged contraventions of workplace laws and union rules are found.
April 5 – The ACTU suspends the HSU until the union can resolve its governance and financial management issues.
April 8 – Pressure mounts for Mr Williamson to be sacked from Unions NSW.
April 9 – Ms Jackson calls for the union’s national executive to resign and let members elect a new leadership.
April 10 - Divisions within the embattled HSU’s top brass deepen, with branches of the union threatening to break away unless the leadership dispute is resolved.
April 12 – Unions NSW votes to dump Mr Williamson as its vice-president and also moves to suspend the troubled union from its organisation.
April 13 – Infighting within the HSU intensifies, with Ms Jackson charging Mr Williamson under the HSU’s rules in a bid to have him removed.
April 15 – The federal opposition calls on Ms Gillard to demand Mr Thomson co-operate with a NSW police investigation into the HSU.
April 18 - Mr Brown calls for a report commissioned by the HSU’s East branch into alleged financial mismanagement and credit card misuse to be released publicly.
April 20 – Fairfax claims the HSU secretly paid Mr Thompson $160,000 three years after he had entered parliament to settle a defamation claim he brought against the HSU and Ms Jackson.
April 23 – Ms Jackson goes to the Federal Court claiming 17 members of the HSU East branch are not entitled to vote at union council meetings.
April 26 – Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten applies to have the HSU East branch placed into administration. Unions NSW, ACTU and Mr Brown welcome the move, but Ms Jackson accuses Mr Shorten of “grandstanding”.
April 27 – A meeting of the HSU top brass in Sydney calls for Ms Jackson to resign but admits it cannot remove her forcibly. Former industrial relations commissioner Errol Hodder is appointed to deal with internal charges against Mr Williamson and Ms Jackson as the new union ombudsman.
April 29 – Ms Gillard announces Mr Thomson will be quitting the Labor Party to sit on the crossbench as an independent.
May 7 – Fair Work Australia report finds Craig Thomson was guilty of illegally spending $6008 on prostitutes, spending more than $70,000 of union funds on restaurant meals, hotels, air travel for his wife and other personal items and spending $103,338.70 on cash advances.
May 9 - NSW Labor Party confirms it paid Mr Thomson’s legal bill over the Fair Work Australia investigation into the misuse of union funds.
May 11 - Craig Thomson accuses dumped Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson of being complicit in a campaign to set him up with hookers.
May 21 - Craig Thomson gives 58-minute speech to parliament addressing allegations against him, claiming he was the victim of an elaborate identity theft. During the highly-emotional speech, Mr Thomson claimed other union members knew his credit card details, driver’s licence number and that his phone number had been cloned.
June 6 -Former prostitute who claimed in an interview with A Current Affair to have slept with Mr Thomson recants and apologises, claiming a case of “complete mistaken identity”.
August 21 - KPMG audit finds Fair Work Australia’s inquiries into the Health Services Union and Craig Thomson were seriously flawed.
Mr Thomson says findings vindicate his claims the inquiry was a sham.
October 15 -Fair Work Australia takes Federal Court action alleging Mr Thomson misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds.
October 24 - Fraud squads from NSW and Victoria raid Craig Thomson’s house, seizing computers and other items.
Timeline Courtesy of The Herald Sun – 24 October, 2012
On page 1125 of the Fair Work Australia Report of 28 March 2012 it states
53. However, after the settlement of the defamation action brought by Mr Thomson against Fairfax, on 6 June 2011, I was provided by Fairfax with a range of new evidence which was relevant to these allegations. This evidence was not previously available to me given the terms of section 335 of the RO Act and is discussed in chapter 6 of this report. When this evidence is added to the evidence which had already been obtained by FWA, the preponderance of evidence is such that I can only conclude that it was indeed Mr Thomson who used his credit card to spend the amount of $5,793 for the procurement of escort services.
54. Mr Thomson has, himself, acknowledged that such expenditure could not in any circumstances be considered legitimate expenditure of the HSU. Consequently, I have found that Mr Thomson has expended HSU funds for the procurement of escort services for no legitimate HSU purposes.
55. I also consider that, by denying to me at interview that he ever used his HSU credit cards to procure escort services, Mr Thomson has provided me with information that is false or misleading insofar as the expenditure of HSU funds on escort services is concerned.
On 9 May 2012 NSW Labor Party confirms it paid Mr Thomson’s legal bill over the Fair Work Australia investigation into the misuse of union funds. This shows ALP is deeply complicit in protecting Thomson to cover their numbers holding them in power.
Mr Thomson and his mouthpiece Mcardle can bitch , bleat and bully all they like, but this is a case of someone that should be seen to be innocent not just be proven to be innocent, and they weight of evidence already is dragging his head onto the chopping block.
