With all that has been going inside the HSU hearings of the Trade Union Royal Commission and the bizarre antics outside the Commission during doorstop interviews, one voice has been missing.

Both Independent Australia and Wixxyleaks have been receiving a lot of queries around Craig Thomson and what his attitude towards the unfolding events at the Royal Commission may be.

I thought rather than assume anything it may be best to have a conversation with him and ask him to give us his thoughts.

The name Craig Thomson is usually the first name that comes to mind when someone refers to the HSU despite the allegations against him being tiny in comparison to the allegations against others. However given that he is awaiting his appeal by a Magistrate for his earlier convictions related to his spending of HSU members funds, his voice has not been heard for a while .

In particular I wanted to ask him about his treatment by the media and how he thinks that may have influenced his legal matters.

A key part of that is Thomsons address to parliament, which can be viewed in full on the HSU Resource Page on Wixxyleaks.

At the time this address was mocked by the mainstream media, and the impact of this level of media barrage on Thomson and his family was of grave concern to many media commentators.

At the time of course Kathy Jackson was the darling of the press, and the adopted daughter of the Coalition with everybody showering her with praise.

Now with the benefit of hindsight it seems that Thomson was actually rather lenient towards her in his address and others he also mentioned as being connected.

Kathy Jackson is no longer the darling of the press, it is fair to say that the press appear to be rather livid at her for stringing them along for years and the Coalition can’t seem to find enough distance from her. Kathy’s partner Michael Lawler is being shown to be becoming even more involved with HSU affairs even trying to legally represent Kathy against the HSU. Marco Bolano has been reported by several people to the police for trying to physically intimidate them during the Royal Commission, and joining Jackson in attempts to try and implicate a respected journalist with hookers, an act they said was a ludicrous suggestion when Thomson claimed they had threatened to set him up with hookers.

I also wanted to ask him about his views on his treatment by media. During his parliamentary address he made mention of the media and memorably pointed towards them during his address accusing them of unfairly targeting him, his family and his staff.

After his speech the Herald Sun published the infamous front page with Thomson with the big nose and the “We don’t believe you” headline. Not long after the Herald Sun was forced to publish a kind of excuse or insincere apology by the Australian Press Council for its highly prejudicial coverage.

With all of the evidence of millions of dollars being rorted from the unions membership, I thought perhaps it was a good time to have a chat with the man who tried to introduce some financial governance measures into the union all those years ago.

With that in mind I contacted Thomson and he agreed to meet up for a cappuccino and a chat at the Red Heart Café near my place.

I hope the interview answers some of our readers queries.