Aussie PM dumped by own party

[Magda Hassan]

Well, Kevin Rudd lost. So we still Have Julia Gillard as PM. She is handled by as bunch of US lackies. I suppose it will be business as usual.

Peter, it works like this. There is no secret ballot, one of the things that Kevin was wanting to change. All the votes happen in one room where everyone is together with the heavies standing by the exits keeping an eye on the proceedings and giving the evil eye to those who are suspected of not voting the right way. When it is finished they wash the blood from the walls and floor.

[Peter Lemkin]

Well, Kevin Rudd lost. So we still Have Julia Gillard as PM. She is handled by as bunch of US lackies. I suppose it will be business as usual.

Peter, it works like this. There is no secret ballot, one of the things that Kevin was wanting to change. All the votes happen in one room where everyone is together with the heavies standing by the exits keeping an eye on the proceedings and giving the evil eye to those who are suspected of not voting the right way. When it is finished they wash the blood from the walls and floor.

Now I see why OZ is so good at Rugby. By the way, don't the PEOPLE have a say in all 'this'...or are they only spectators in the 'rugby' scrum? Good luck in getting a democracy some day.....I know we don't have one in my country either. The various forms of 'representative democracy' the elites have figured out are all constructed to give them near total power and the People all but none!

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, definitely spectators. The leader of the party is elected by the party members in their caucus. Not even all party members get to vote on it. Just a select few, around 100.

I just heard a very interesting and positive development. One of the traitorous men identified as the source in the wikileaks cables has resigned his position.
From ABC news

In a shock development in Labor's internal wrangling, right-wing powerbroker Mark Arbib - known as a 'king maker' in the party - has resigned from Parliament.Senator Arbib is quitting his positions as Assistant-Treasurer, Small Business, and Sports Minister as a "gesture to unite and to heal".His support was key to elevating Kevin Rudd to party leader in 2006, and then in 2010, to dumping him in favour of Julia Gillard.He hopes his decision will help the party heal but he also wants to spend more time with his family."I have been a faction leader and I've had to make tough and unpopular decisions, but I have always loved the Labor party," he said.The Senate vacancy will be filled, as is the convention, by the NSW Premier appointing another ALP member.More to come.

[Peter Lemkin]

Yes, definitely spectators. The leader of the party is elected by the party members in their caucus. Not even all party members get to vote on it. Just a select few, around 100.

I just heard a very interesting and positive development. One of the traitorous men identified as the source in the wikileaks cables has resigned his position.
From ABC news

In a shock development in Labor's internal wrangling, right-wing powerbroker Mark Arbib - known as a 'king maker' in the party - has resigned from Parliament.Senator Arbib is quitting his positions as Assistant-Treasurer, Small Business, and Sports Minister as a "gesture to unite and to heal".His support was key to elevating Kevin Rudd to party leader in 2006, and then in 2010, to dumping him in favour of Julia Gillard.He hopes his decision will help the party heal but he also wants to spend more time with his family."I have been a faction leader and I've had to make tough and unpopular decisions, but I have always loved the Labor party," he said.The Senate vacancy will be filled, as is the convention, by the NSW Premier appointing another ALP member.More to come.

You had mentioned him as a possible US mole....but, why would he resign after a successful manouvre? Interesting in light of my rugby analogy he was also Sports Minister :mexican:

[Magda Hassan]

He was identified as a mole in the Wikileaks cables. When confronted by it it was really embarrassing how there were so many in the party who were also doing the same thing and really saw no wrong in giving state secrets to the US. :unclesam: :banghead:

Yes, I've been wondering about this too. The old "I want to spend more time with my family" fade out. Perhaps Rudd had more support than they are letting on. Or there had to be some scalps in return for Rudd's silence on some matters. I will be watching this with interest.

[Magda Hassan]

Australia: Key 2010 coup plotter quits government after leadership vote

By Patrick O'Connor
28 February 2012

Within hours of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's defeat of Kevin Rudd in yesterday's Labor Party leadership ballot, Labor Senator Mark Arbib announced that he was quitting politics. A career apparatchik within the powerful New South Wales Right faction, Arbib played the key role in removing Rudd and installing Gillard as prime minister in the June 2010 coup. In this, he worked closely with Washington, having been a secret "protected source" for the US embassy in Canberra from early on in his political career.Arbib indicated that his decision to resign was centrally bound up with the coup. While insisting that he "stands by the decision" to axe Rudd, the senator declared that "we need to close the door on that period and we need to start afresh." He continued: "I want to be able to mend some of the conflict that has happened in the past... What I'm trying to do is try to ensure that the party gets over the past week, the past period, it's a gesture of goodwill to the party."The media's universal response was to declare Arbib's decision to resign completely inexplicable. The 40-year-old senator was regarded as an ambitious soon-to-be cabinet member, whom Gillard had promoted to the position of assistant treasurer less than three months ago. Moreover, in an apparent attempt to modify his image as a factional boss, Arbib had previously quit his roles as national convenor of the Labor Right faction and as a member of the party's national executive committee. The Age's political editor Michelle Grattan described the resignation as a "complete mystery", while the newspaper's national affairs editor Tony Wright reported: "Confused hacks in the press gallery ventured increasingly wild theories."No one in the media has raised the possibility that US officials might have played a role in Arbib's decision. During the 25-minute press conference held yesterday afternoon, not a single question was put to the senator about his ties to the American embassy. This is consistent with the continued blackout of the real reasons behind the 2010 coup, and the extraordinary insistence that there were no policy differences behind Rudd's decision to resign as foreign minister and challenge Gillard for the Labor leadership.Diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, however, have provided details of aspects of Arbib's intimate relations with American officials, and his role in the lead up to Rudd's removal. Before he even entered federal politics in 2007, Arbib was plugged into the long-established network between the NSW Labor Right and the US diplomatic-intelligence apparatus.A US embassy profile of Arbib, sent to Washington in July 2009, noted the politician "has met with us repeatedly throughout his political rise" and described him as a "right-wing powerbroker and political rising star." Arbib was among the American assets within the Labor factions and trade union bureaucracy who worked closely with the US embassy before the 2010 coup. In October 2009, that is, eight months before Gillard was installed in unprecedented circumstances, the senator informed American officials about the emerging leadership tensions, about which the Australian people knew nothing.The WikiLeaks' cables established a growing concern among US officials at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's practice of launching important diplomatic initiatives without first securing their approval. These initiatives included the proposed Asia Pacific Community, which Rudd regarded as a potential means for mediating between US and Chinese strategic interests in the Asia-Pacific. This orientation, however, cut across the Obama administration's "pivot" to Asia, which focussed not on accommodating China's rising diplomatic and strategic influence, but on aggressively countering it, including through a heightened military presence in the region.At the same time as dissatisfaction with Rudd escalated, Gillard curried favour with the US and Israel. One diplomatic cable dispatched in mid-2008 notably wondered if Gillard had suddenly become more enthusiastic for US operations or if her dealings with embassy officials merely reflected "an understanding of what she needs to do to become leader of the ALP."The June 2010 coup laid bare the extent to which the US state is involved in every aspect of Australian political life. It marked only the latest episode of American interference, following the CIA's involvement in the destabilisation campaign against Gough Whitlam's Labor government in 1975,which culminated in the infamous Canberra Coup. The axing of Rudd also demonstrated the hollowed out and rotten character of the Labor Party apparatus. It provided a glimpse of how power is really wielded, behind the facade of parliamentary democracy, and made clear the Australian ruling elite's willingness to resort to extra-parliamentary methods of rule. For all these reasons, discussion of the real issues involved in the coup remains entirely off-limits in political and media circles.Many questions remain about Arbib's statements yesterday. One possibility is that he was told by the US embassy that his services within the Australian Labor government were no longer required, because he was too closely associated with the political stench of the coup and because too much detail about his relationship with Washington had been publicly revealed.Prime Minister Julia Gillard, addressing journalists yesterday after beating Rudd in the leadership ballot by 71 votes to 31, emphasised that there should be no further discussion on how she was installed. "I have had the opportunity to explain the circumstances of 2010 and how I became prime minister," she declared. "I accept that I should have explained that at the time. I have now had the opportunity to do so, but having taken that opportunity, I believe the discussions about 2010 should now be at an end, our focus is on 2012 and all the years that lie beyond for the Australian nation."According to Gillard, her recent bitter denunciations of Rudd's leadershipthat it was chaotic, dysfunctional and caused the government to become "paralysed"constitutes an explanation of the unprecedented events of June 2010. This is an attempt to rewrite history. Gillard's account, moreover, is absurd on its face. It has been established that on the night of June 23, 2010, Gillard met in Rudd's office, together with Senator John Faulkner, and agreed to give the prime minister four months to improve the government's standing. She then left the room and returned, 10 minutes later, to renege on the deal and insist that Rudd had to go. Why did she give her initial undertaking if the government was effectively on the brink of collapse? And even more importantly, with whom did she speak when she left Rudd's office? What was said to her to make her change her mind?Gillard has never shaken off the deep public hostility to the antidemocratic events of June 2010, and her latest attempt to evade the issues involved will prove no more successful than her previous ones. Nevertheless her government is desperately trying to distance itself from the events of June 2010 in order to try to prove to the corporate and financial elite that it can implement the agenda being demanded.Gillard has declared her determination to proceed with various pro-business "reforms" and to return the budget to surplus, inevitably involving significant cuts to public services and major layoffs in the public sector. The prime minister was issued clear directives today in newspaper editorials for austerity and further cuts to working conditions.

http://wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/aust-f28.shtml

[Jan Klimkowski]

"One may smile, and smile and be a villain."

Goddamn it! We've got one of them.

[Magda Hassan]

I'm putting this here as it is a continuing saga of the previous posts and says a lot about the state of play here at the moment.

Since Kevin Rudd was deposed (almost certainly at the behest of Washington) and replaced with Julia Gillard by the right wing faction that frequent the US embassy here there has been an unrelenting campaign to get rid of the Labor party altogether led by the Liberal (read Tory) opposition and cheered on by the Murdoch media minions. Like other right wingnut parties around the world they are pushing for 'austerity' and are dominated by religious zealots and climate skeptics and mysogynists and closeted gays who will likely be busted in compromising situations before too long. As far as managers of capitalism go the current governmet is doing a pefectly adequate job and there is no reason to complain. The 2 things that are siezed upon to beat them with are a new carbon tax and a new levy on some mining operations. With regards to the carbon tax the opposition also supported it at the election time but political amnesia has set in and the media are busy keeping it that way. The miners in question are all billionaires and do not pay tax and a screaming at this class warfare as they call it and the prospect that they may have to fork over some dollars. They are busy buying up local tv stations and print media and installing house trained journalists (I use the term loosely) to put their story across which isn't really need to go to all that trouble in any case as the rest of the media have been more than happy to carry their anti-goverment ads wall to wall. They can't pack up and move overseas like the manufacturing industry did but they are trying to bring in overseas workers for their mines.

Oh, and there was a very weak and half hearted inquiry into the media, which carefully avoided several elephants in the room, when an inquiry was demanded by many here due to the Murdoch hacking crimes being exposed in the UK media and the Leveson Inquiry there. In any case the government has ignored any recommendations and Murdoch will not be being brouht to account in Australia any time soon.

One of the reasons for the virulent persecution of the Labor government, apart from the born to rule mindset, is that the opposition are in with a chance if they can just get rid of one MP. The Labor government is a minority government and only governs with the co-operation of some independents. There are 2 MP's they have focused on as possibilities to remove. One is Craig Thomson who they accuse of corruption and financial misappropriation in his previous job of union boss of the HSU (representing some of the poorer health industry workers) The other MP is one of their own for 9 years who left the party and who they now claims is involved in rorting travel vouchers and has sexually harrassed a staffer. All have been trumpeted by the Murdoch media as the crimes of the century and demads for them to resign and therefore hand government over to the Liberals and the rest of the media have followed obediently. It has been up to some handful of independent media and bloggers to uncover the truth of the matter using plenty of stuff already our there and published which the MSM have failed to make use of or ignored totally. They are still ignoring it. So here it is.

How Jackson, Lawler and Abbott tangled Thomson with the HSU

Posted by admin in Crime, Investigations, Politics on 16 May, 2012 1:36 am / 11 comments

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There are many suspicious features about Craig Thomson's Health Services Union imbroglio, but notable among them are the apparently close links between HSU "whistleblower" Kathy Jackson and Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Peter Wicks uncovers a very tangled web.

Fair Work Australia vice president Michael Lawler; his partner, HSU "whistleblower" Kathy Jackson; and friend.

The major saga embroiling the Federal Government at the moment, besides the curious Peter Slipper and James Ashby affair, is the Health Services Union (HSU) debacle.
Firstly, let me start by saying that I do not endorse anyone spending over $6,000 on prostitutes on a union credit card that is reprehensible behaviour. Nor do I endorse not declaring vast amounts of money to the Electoral Commission on election campaigns. However, these allegations are yet to be proved and are vigorously denied.
In any case, I think I smell a rat.
Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson has been ripping into both the Labor Party and the former (until February 2012) President of Fair Work Australia, Geoffrey Giudice, for months now over the goings on within the embattled Union and the investigation resulting from her claims.
Kathy Jackson has caused the union movement untold damage and brought the Federal Government to the brink of collapse. One would assume that the public may be interested in knowing a little more about her and any conflicts of interest she may have.
One vital piece of information that is not widely known about her is that her partner is a man named Michael Lawler.
Who is Michael Lawler?
For starters, according to reliable sources, Michael Lawler is friends with a man named Tony Abbott. Apparently, the two of them socialise regularly. Conveniently, Tony Abbott is also the leader of the political party making so much ground out of the claims Michael's partner is making.
Michael Lawler works for an organisation called Fair Work Australia, where he is a Vice-President on a salary of $400,000 a year. The only person higher than him at that organisation is Iain Ross, who just replaced Geoffrey Giudice the one who Tony Abbott and Lawler's partner Kathy Jackson were attacking daily as President of Fair Work Australia.
On the 11th of October 2002, according to the FWA annual report, Michael Lawler was appointed Vice President of Fair Work Australia although back then it was called the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Previously, Lawler was a barrister who made his mark representing employers in employment disputes. The man who appointed him to the AIRC was none other than Tony Abbott who at the time was Employment and Workplace Relations Minister under John Howard's Coalition Government.
On his appointment, Tony Abbott gave a speech praising Lawler in a remarkably personal and intimate fashion. Here is some of what he said that day:

"Intellect combined with common sense, compassion tempered by realism, ideals shaped but not dimmed by experience, some grasp of the nobility and waywardness that contend in every man: these, in my view, are some of the qualities which Vice President Lawler will bring to the demanding and often lonely life that lies before him."

At a function to farewell Tony Abbott from his position as Employment and Workplace Relations minister the following year, Lawler was one of just four members of the AIRC to attend.
Independent Australia requested confirmation from Tony Abbott's office about the relationship between the Opposition Leader and Michael Lawler, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
The Opposition always refer to Fair Work Australia as Julia Gillard's "baby", but Lawler was certainly Tony Abbott's appointment.
Of course, all these things may be purely coincidental…
However, it does appear strange that Mr Lawler seems to have become involved in factional battles within the union on his partner Kathy's behalf.
Carol Glen was the Victorian Divisional Secretary of HSU East for three years before resigning recently. At the time, Kathy Jackson was National Secretary of HSU East, and Michael Williamson was the General Secretary of HSU East.
Carol resigned due to the factional fighting within the union, particularly between Jackson and Williamson.
However, Jackson clearly did not want Carol to resign, as she feared that Williamson would replace her with a Divisional Secretary loyal to him.

Former HSU official, Carol Glen

This is the point where Lawler became involved in the factional battle within the Union, even though he was not a part of the HSU himself.
Carol Glen, in a written complaint to former Fair Work Australia President Geoffrey Giudice, alleges she received an "aggressive" phone call from Lawler, who told her:

"You can fuck off and take sick leave if you don't want to do the work and still be paid, but you can't resign."

Michael Lawler did not work at HSU East, and this complaint went directly to his only superior in Fair Work Australia, Geoffrey Guidice.
Then, just a few days later, Lawler made corruption allegations against Carol to NSW Police and Strikeforce Carnarvon was born.
It is odd that this type of complaint would come from Lawler as he was not part of HSU East or even a member of the Union.
As part of his complaint of corruption, Lawler made reference to a cheque that was being picked up by Carol something he said she had mentioned in an email. The inference was that this cheque was some sort of pay off.
The Australian details the claims made by Lawler and the subsequent reaction by Glen:

Mr Lawler claims Ms Glen may have been given an inducement to give false evidence, noting that in a private email exchange with her partner in December, she had referred to a cheque she was going to pick up.
"I had ordered a bank cheque to pay my rent," Ms Glen said, questioning how Mr Lawler had obtained her emails. She says she finds it extraordinary that Mr Lawler, the second highest industrial judge in the land, would engage in such a campaign.
Mr Lawler's associate said it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

So, in fact, the cheque was a bank cheque ordered by Carol to pay her rent totally innocent and unrelated to any Union business at all.
However, the question remains: how would Lawler know about the cheque? Given he mentioned a "private email exchange", it would seem certain that he somehow had access to Ms Glen's emails. So, how did Lawler have access to Glen's private emails?
We don't know, because as soon as he was asked about this detail, Lawler's associate clammed up.
All decidedly suspicious.

On the 2nd May, police officers from the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad raided the HSU East headquarters in Pitt Street, Sydney, in a much publicised operation.
However, my inside sources have pointed out a few anomalies about the official story of the raid that was reported in the press. Police were offered the option of using the service elevator and the rear entrance to the building to make things simpler, safer, and faster for officers but this offer was rejected as the police were reportedly keen to use the main entrance, where the press had been assembled. Sources also state that the large number of boxes shown on TV being carried out by officers were all virtually empty it was allegedly all done for show, to make it look like there were mountains of documents seized. Also, sources say, the story about HSU boss Michael Williamson trying to sneak out a back door with evidence was total rubbish done presumably to implicate guilt. In fact, Mr Williamson left the office via the entrance the police were offered access to, as his car was parked in the car park opposite; the things he was carrying were taken by police as a routine part of the operation, as were his personal items and probably a sandwich as well.
Of course, Kathy Jackson has acted very strangely for a so-called union boss.
In Melbourne, Jackson has hired Stuart Wood, a former Vice President of the HR Nicholls Society, as her lawyer. The HR Nicholls Society is a right-wing lobby group with close ties to the Liberal Party, set up as a think tank dedicated to Industrial Relations "reform" much of which fed into the architecture of the Howard Government's infamous "WorkChoices" policy.
It would seem valid to question why the Secretary of a union would hire a solicitor that is anti-union and, indeed, one whose ideas you have apparently spent your whole working life fighting against. A quick look at HR Nicholls Society's website shows just how close its ties are with the Liberal Party. Former Howard Government industrial relations minister Peter Reith is a board member, for example, and other notable names on the list of who contributes to this Society are Tony Abbott (there's that name again), Eric Abetz, Peter Costello, Michael Kroger… the list goes on and on even Andrew Bolt gets a mention.
Even more strangely, for a union rep, Jackson is due to be guest of honour and give a speech at the HR Nicholls Society annual dinner on June 12th. Strangely, Mal Brough who has been accused of being implicated in the allegations against Peter Slipper fronted the HR Nicholls Society only a week or two ago [note below video].


And, in yet another strange coincidence, Peter Slipper accuser James Ashby is using Kathy Jackson's Sydney lawyers.
On the 14th May, on the Chris Smith programme on radio station 2GB, Kathy Jackson said that rumours of the Liberal party paying for her vast team of lawyers were rubbish. These lawyers, expensive lawyers, were all working for her for free pro bono she stated. Chris Smith, however, chose not to pursue the matter…
People can say whatever they like about Craig Thomson's credibility and his explanation of events, however most people would find it totally unbelievable, and absolutely inconceivable, that these right wing lawyers, one of them from a Liberal Party aligned union busting "think tank", would provide their services free to a union boss especially one who pays herself a $270,000 salary.
So, it would seem there are many questions to be asked and not just of Craig Thomson.
The mind boggles as to how someone who is a former employers' barrister in their disputes with unions and was appointed to the AIRC by Tony Abbott as well as allegedly being a personal friend, is able to allegedly hack the emails of a Union official and then make a criminal complaint regarding this Union even while being the Vice President of the organisation actually in charge of investigating the same Union as well as being the partner of the Union whistleblower most deeply enmeshed in the whole affair, who is soon to speak at a function for a union busting Liberal Party-aligned think tank, and who is being represented in all her actions against the union for free by the Liberal Party's favourite lawyers and yet none of this is widely reported in the media, or seemingly of any major interest to police?
Talk about conflicts of interest.
What is really going on here?
In my mind, all this puts question marks over the entire investigation and makes me wonder about the Coalition's direct involvement. After all, George Brandis repeatedly kept pushing for more investigations. If nothing else, Jackson, Lawler, Abbott and the NSW police have some serious questions to answer.
I don't know how deep this runs but, like I said, I smell a rat.
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012...th-abbott/

[Magda Hassan]

The Jackson and Lawler HSU tangle: Part Two

Posted by admin in Crime, Investigations, Politics on 17 May, 2012 10:25 pm / 3 comments

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Peter Wicks reports on more murky events involving HSU union boss "whistleblower" Kathy Jackson, and the Vice President of the organisation charged with investigating her serious claims against Craig Thomson MP her partner, Michael Lawler.
[Read Part One here.]
In what can be described as an "action packed" lead up to the long awaited speech to be given in Parliament on Monday by embattled MP Craig Thomson, today came confirmation of a "knockout blow".
Some of you may have read my report on the tangled web surrounding the Health Services Union HSU, Fair Work Australia and the Coalition that was published here yesterday now more information is coming to light.
The big news is that Michael Lawler, the Vice President of Fair Work Australia, has today been distanced from FWA affairs.
I contacted Fair Work Australia today after anonymous sources informed me that he had been stood down. Initially I spoke to Michael's PA, who informed me she knew nothing only that he was not in the office all day.
But the rumours persisted and I made contact with the FWA to ask about their veracity. Late this afternoon I was contacted by FWA's Communications Manager, Judy Hughes, who informed me that in fact Michael was on what she called "Long Leave".
She would not expand on what this meant, citing "privacy reasons", however based on my earlier conversations with both her and Michael's PA, I was left with the impression that this decision was taken rather suddenly.
Reasons for his "Long Leave" are, as yet, unclear however questions are being raised as to whether it is connected with the HSU investigation into which his partner, Kathy Jackson, was the Union "whistleblower". Questions have been raised about Lawler's relationship with Tony Abbott, and how this may have had an influence on any investigations taking place in FWA which involved Craig Thomson.
The Fair Work Australia investigations findings were also dealt a heavy blow yesterday when the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) found that almost all the Union funds used in Craig Thomson's election campaign had indeed been appropriately disclosed, with a question mark remaining over $17,000. This appears to have taken the sting out of the tail of both the FWA Investigation and the Coalition's calls for Thomson's vote to be considered "tainted".
A source, who cannot be named, has today leaked to us an email trail that was saved as a PDF document, allegedly by Kathy Jackson, from what appears to be a computer within Fair Work Australia. The document has the name "Jackson" in the documents properties, and in the same properties it also tells us that the license for the software comes from Fair Work Australia.
We cannot share the contents of this file with you, though we can say that it involves an angry exchange of emails between Michael Williamson, and several HSU Representatives.
Note name and date


Note company


It is not totally clear why Jackson was allegedly distributing the emails, however the date is noteworthy. According to the document properties it was created on the 6th of May the day before the findings of the FWA investigation were released. If this Jackson is Kathy Jackson, as our source alleges, it raises not questions about why Jackson, as the HSU secretary, would have access to the computers of Fair Work Australia let alone on the day before it announced its findings on the investigation into her union.
At this stage, these facts are not confirmed and we cannot, of course, vouch for the veracity or authenticity of the document we have been leaked. However, FWA should be in a position to confirm whether Jackson has access to FWA computers and, through its logs, whether they were accessed at the time listed in the document properties.
In a strange parallel, we noted in Wednesday's piece that Michael Lawler somehow seemed to have access to Union official Carol Glen personal emails.
From The Australian [February 2012, emphasis mine]:

Mr Lawler claims Ms Glen may have been given an inducement to give false evidence, noting that in a private email exchange with her partner in December, she had referred to a cheque she was going to pick up.
"I had ordered a bank cheque to pay my rent," Ms Glen said, questioning how Mr Lawler had obtained her emails. She says she finds it extraordinary that Mr Lawler, the second highest industrial judge in the land, would engage in such a campaign.
Mr Lawler's associate said it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

While we are on it, Craig Thomson has been painted by certain members of the mainstream press as something of a delusional man over the last few days, it's fair to say. It is hard not to feel sorry for Craig's family who must be having a hard time dealing with all the extra attention. I also spare a thought for Craig's staff, who face the public daily in his electorate, as those seeking to make political capital try to act as judge, jury, and executioner.
Kathy Jackson has been touring the country telling anybody who will listen that Thomson's conspiracy theories regarding fiddling credit cards, setting up people with prostitutes, and elaborate private expenses on a union credit card are all nonsense absolutely unheard of ridiculous stories.
As it happens, however, there was remarkably similar story from a few years back, which also involves prostitutes, credit cards, and a HSU official being set up at the HSU:
From the The Weekend Australian April 2009:

"The statement of a Bendigo Gold Visa card allegedly issued to Jackson shows expenditure on services that fall far outside his normal duties. It includes a string of prostitutes, designer clothes, dental work, gourmet food and drinks at a favourite Melbourne hotel. Jackson challenges the authenticity of this credit card account and dismisses allegations he has misused any funds as part of a "dirty tricks campaign" mounted by opponents within his union…"

Of course, Kathy Jackson may have not remembered this case, as it was a while ago. Except for one minor detail the person apparently set up, Jeff Jackson, happens to be her ex-husband. You would have thought she might remember that when she scoffingly dismissed Thomson's claims.
In the meantime, Kathy Jackson has been travelling around doing interviews, telling everybody that will listen how badly the HSU East branch had been run.
Kathy has spoken out about how her members are doing it tough, as members are mostly made up of low paid workers. Therefore, Kathy tells us, it is sad to hear of members' funds being wasted.
I wonder if she has spared that any thought as she travels around giving interviews, not to help members, but to condemn Craig Thomson. I also wonder how much she pondered on members funds when she set her own salary at over $270,000 per annum, making her one of the highest earners within the trade union movement. Maybe it was a consideration when she decided that the Union should supply her with a new SUV to get around in.
Once again, these latest events cast a huge shadow of doubt over any investigation that has been done into the HSU. As this story gets even murkier and less clear-cut by the hour, we await Monday's parliamentary speech by Craig Thomson with bated breath.
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012...-part-two/

[Magda Hassan]

Craig Thomson's kangaroo court

Posted by admin in Crime, Law, Politics on 20 May, 2012 8:31 pm / 6 comments

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Craig Thomson has been only convicted in the kangaroo court of mainstream media and conservative politics he is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Peter Wicks comments.

Craig Thomson has been cruelly pre-judged by the Australian mass media.

I was thinking today how lucky we are to live in a country like Australia.
Australia is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but there are some things we can always rely on well, nearly always. The presumption of innocence until proven guilty, for example; and at the end of the process of determining guilt or innocence, a punishment is only handed down upon guilt being found beyond reasonable doubt.
Some of you may have seen my posts last week on the serious questions that remain unanswered relating to the HSU saga; if not, here are links topart one and part two. It is fair to say that I have received all types of correspondence, as has Independent Australia, since publishing these posts. However, it is interesting to note that not one person has disputed any of the facts mentioned in the posts not one.
I did, however, want to take the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions and clarify a few points.
Firstly, I did approach some main stream media before doing the story myself. I won't name any of the media outlets however I will say, in their defence, that one of their major issues was time. My primary source had work commitments and it was unlikely that a story that in part relied on access to that informant was going to be able to be put together for broadcast or publication before Craig Thomson's speech tomorrow. In addition to that, the person in question was not entirely comfortable fronting the media given their own particular circumstances.
There are, however, those who have said that simply because the story did not come from a mainstream media source, then therefore it was unreliable. In fact, those who followed the links in the story would notice they led to numerous official documents, as well as mainstream media sources. So, my posts are as credible as those sources.
As I said, the facts presented in our stories do not appear to be in dispute. So, why aren't they being reported in the mainstream media?
There are those who say that bloggers, and independent media publications like Independent Australia, do not have the accountability of those in the mainstream media and do not have as much to risk. To this argument, I would say: "What utter crap".
The notion that somebody would rather take on a mainstream journalist or columnist, who has the backing of, say, News Ltd or Fairfax legal teams and their employers' deep pockets, quicker than they would run the risk of taking on me, with my pocketful of change, or Independent Australia, in a defamation suit is, quite obviously, an insult to our intelligence.
On this note, both I and Independent Australia have received all kinds of information and correspondence relating to this story since its publication. Not everything has been published.



Much of the information we received was both relevant, and also quite explosive in some cases. However, we chose not to publish information that could not be verified, or information that we considered private, such as emails. On the contrary to not being credible I would regard our approach as more credible and ethical then the standard practices we see in much of the mainstream media. We did our due diligence and then some.

On a different topic, what has completely humbled me is the number of messages, tweets, comments and feedback that we both have received from members of the Health Services Union. Every single one of these has been a message of support and happiness that some previously unrevealed truths were starting to emerge.
We had all seen and heard Kathy Jackson telling her side of the story constantly for the last couple of months. I had also noticed the mysteriously sudden change of heart towards union members by both right-wing commentators and Liberal politicians and their solemn words of concern for the Union's well-being. It was really was quite touching…
Then after receiving all the correspondence from members of the HSU, a thought occurred to me.
That thought was:

"Never in my living memory has a union's membership been so well spoken for, while ultimately nobody gets to hear what that membership thinks or even what it wants heard."

Plenty of people are speaking for them, but nobody it appears, is interested in using their words. How frustrating that must be…
That is one of the true tragedies in this whole sordid affair. After all, it is their money we are all talking about.
The other main misconception I want to address is that I am out to prove Craig Thomson's innocence.
This has never been my intention, I am not in possession of all the facts in this case and do not claim to know all there is to know. It would be irresponsible of me to declare Thomson innocent. However, it is just as irresponsible for anybody without ALL the facts to declare his certain guilt.


If Craig does happen to be innocent, he must feel a little like Lindy Chamberlain must have felt all those years ago. Judged guilty by the press and public for years, only to be found innocent after years of horrendous abuse and suffering even jail, in Lindy's case.

If there is one thing worth believing in, it is the concept of innocent until proven guilty. I expectantly await Craig's speech on Monday and will listen to what he says with an open mind. My only hope is that the rest of the nation does the same.
You may remember, at the start of this post I mentioned "reasonable doubt".
In my mind, after researching the things I have published in my last two posts. I believe that there is ample evidence to suggest prima facie that there reasonable doubt about Craig Thomson's guilt. Whether he is guilty or innocent will ultimately be determined by the courts, not politicians or the mainstream media neither of which are in full possession of the facts, as we have shown.
I just hope that the debate after Monday can be kept civil.
After all, there is a family, and thousands of union members, whose heart breaks a little more each day as this debate rages like a wildfire out of control and becomes more about character assassination and the desperate desire for political power, rather than any honest seeking of the truth.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012...roo-court/