Here is a mere snapshot of Craig Thomson's parallel universe. Craig's World According to Thomson, he told the HSU national executive he was spending $103,393.32 in union funds on sponsorship of the Central Coast Rugby League in the years leading up to the 2007 federal election. ''The benefit was to the union's brand name,'' Thomson told FWA. ''It is fundamental that the HSU is continually raising its profile and increasing its membership.'' Real World FWA found there was no authorisation from the (HSU) national council and, rather than being for the HSU's benefit, it was more likely to boost his profile ''in order to enhance his prospects of being preselected by the ALP to contest the seat of Dobell.'' Craig's World The total of $10,000 he spent on a central coast charity Dads in Education, which ran a Father's Day breakfast to encourage fathers to read to their children, was not a secret to the union's head office because Thomson had appeared on the Sunrise television show. FWA: You were on Sunrise?

Thomson: No, I was standing next to the person who was on Sunrise. Thomson also submitted to FWA that ''making the donations [to Dads in Education] was consistent with the objects of the HSU.'' Real World FWA found Thomson, not the HSU, stood to gain from the sponsorship of a local charity. Craig's World While on a $24,000 taxpayer-funded overseas study trip in April last year, the findings of which he was later found to have plagiarised in his report to Parliament, Thomson called FWA from Paris to tell them Fairfax Media had caved in and settled his defamation case. Real World In June 2011, Thomson filed a discontinuance notice with the NSW Supreme Court and the ALP subsequently paid his legal bills, reported to be about $200,000, to stave off bankruptcy.

Craig's World Fairfax settled, Thomson told FWA, because its own handwriting expert had concluded ''the signatures on the credit card forms [for brothel receipts] were forged''. He was also able to prove that his former wife, Christa, ''was with me at the precise times the card was being used in locations in Sydney'', Thomson told FWA. Real World No handwriting expert was ever engaged by Fairfax and Thomson provided no evidence to prove it was not him who had spent $5793 of union money on brothels. Craig's World It was Jeff Jackson, a former HSU executive and ex-husband of Kathy Jackson, who had repaid the HSU ''an undisclosed amount in a confidential settlement following allegations of using a union credit card at the escort agencies in Sydney'', he told FWA. Real World Jackson had been forced to repay $15,000 after he was found to have given himself an unauthorised pay rise. Craig's world In January the Herald reported Thomson, along with Kathy Jackson and Michael Williamson, had been notified the previous month that the workplace regulator intended to make adverse findings against them. Thomson denied ever receiving such notification.

Real World The FWA report states on December 13, 2011, Thomson was served with folders of material in relation to FWA's intention to make adverse findings against him. Thomson's lawyers wrote to FWA on January 9 asking for more time to respond. Craig's World Under his stewardship of the HSU, he turned the union's finances around. Real World When Thomson left the HSU it had a liability to unpaid trade creditors of $1,009,019. Thomson delayed payment to the ATO on three occasions in the second half of 2007 in order to meet his campaign expenses. FWA report: ''Indeed, Mr Thomson continues to deny that the national office's financial situation was deteriorating … in the face of all of the evidence put to him.'' Craig's World The union spent $11,149.65 (not including airfares which the union also paid) on an overseas trip in 2004. Despite taking annual leave during this trip, Thomson spent $3260.87 on his union credit card while on holidays. He said it was because he had to disrupt his holiday with HSU meetings in London. Real World His cash withdrawals were in the US, London and France. ''There is no evidence before me that national council or national executive approved any of Mr Thomson's expenditure for the purposes of, or during, his international travel between [on or about] 2 May 2004 and 24 June 2004.''

Craig's World The $103,338.70 in cash Thomson withdrew in cash during his term as national secretary was a common practice and the money was spent on union business. Real World Mr Thomson was the only person (under a policy that he developed himself) to make cash withdrawals on the CBA Mastercard. Craig's World He never spent any union funds on prostitutes. ''Mr Thomson is unable to explain how the expenditure was incurred but notes that there may have been instances of misuse of HSU credit cards,'' his lawyers told FWA. He also claimed that, if FWA had interviewed his half-brother, Struan Robertson, the workplace regulator would have ''become aware of threats made against Mr Thomson by at least one other official of the HSU, who, in 2004, threatened to ruin Mr Thomson's life, to destroy his political ambitions and to 'set him up with a bunch of hookers and … ruin him.'" Real World The FWA report notes that several cash advances occurred on the same days he rang the escort agencies from his Melbourne hotel rooms. This suggests that, apart from the well documented $5793 he spent on prostitutes in Sydney, he may have been using cash - also union funds - on Melbourne escorts.

Early in the day on April 11, 2006, he withdrew $500 on his union credit card. When he checked out of his Melbourne hotel two days later, he paid the extra costs, which included phone call charges to The Boardroom escort agency. The following week, he was back in Melbourne. On April 20, he spent $202.85 for a room at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, having withdrawn $400 earlier in the day. The room bill, which he paid for without protest, includes phone call charges to Young Blondes escort agency and Confidential Model Escorts. On June 6, 2006, Thomson withdrew $500 in Erina, on the central coast and flew to Melbourne. At 10:30pm Thomson phoned Miss Behaving escort agency from his hotel room. This phone call was included in his bill. Craig's world The $11,426.19 the union spent on 14 separate occasions paying for air travel for his wife, Christa, was part of HSU guidelines regarding spousal travel. Real world ''At no time while Mr Thomson was national secretary did the national office have any policy which permitted officials or employees of the national office to use HSU funds to pay for travel by their partners,'' the FWA report concluded.

Loading Apart from Mr Thomson's efforts with FWA, he has also claimed to have been co-operating with police when he wasn't; urging for the FWA report to be handed down but then taking legal action to try to stop it; breaching parliamentary rules by not disclosing until this week that the ALP had been paying his legal casts in relation to FWA and claiming that police investigations did not relate to him. With the possible future of the Gillard government hanging on his promised explanation to Parliament on May 21, it will be fascinating to see what part of Craig's World is revealed next.