Labor v union

A week ago I blogged on the fraud allegations around federal Labor MP Craig Thomson:

A federal Labor MP, Craig Thomson, is under huge scrutiny as when he was the head of the Health Services Union he spent around $150,000 on his union credit card including several prostitutes. He sued Fairfax a couple of years ago who reported this, but has now dropped the lawsuit, but Fairfax has all the documents under discovery.

There is no doubt he stole money off the union, and used their funds for his personal expenses. He denies he hired prostitutes and say someone else signed the chits.However the escort agencies were also rung from his cellphone and handwriting experts say the signatures are his.

There’s a more detailed post on this from someone in Australia tomorrow, but I want to focus today on the issue of why has he not been charged? Well simply because the Police say they can’t investigate unless the union complains.

So why has the union not complained? Wouldn’t any other organisation that had someone do this, complain?

The answer is because he is a Federal Labor MP, and if they complained, then he might be found guilty and might have to resign his seat which would cause a by-election. And if Labor lost the by-election, they may lose Government.

So to protect their mates in Labor, the union won’t complain to the Police. Never mind the fact $150,000 of their members fees were spent by this Labor MP. They put protecting Labor above their own members interests.

Now I am pleased to say the situation has changed. The union has now complained to the Police, after huge criticism of them for not doing so, and being seen to be complicit in covering up a crime.

But one can now have some sympathy for the union, in terms of the pressure they were under from Labor. Like a bad plot from the Godfather, the union secretary had a dirt-covered shovel left outside her home at 2 am. The story notes that “Labor party figures are angry Ms Jackson referred the allegations Mr Thomson faces to the police.”