Mr Thomson, who has been suspended from the Labor Party, has consistently denied any wrongdoing and FWA has yet to take its case or any other claims to the Federal Court. The AEC said in a statement that it had found in the FWA report four items of spending totalling $17,014.88 which ''would have been required to be incorporated into the total of all amounts received or paid in the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 annual returns of the HSU national office and of the ALP NSW branch''. ''Inquiries have been made to establish whether that has occurred,'' the AEC statement said. The sums related to the establishment of Mr Thomson's campaign office, payments to the Dobell Federal Electoral Council (a Labor party body), the Dobell campaign bus and payments to a marketing firm, LBH Promotions. The AEC analysis reveals that Mr Thomson and the HSU National Office regularly disclosed to it the amount of funds that were being spent on advertising and other campaign expenses.

The analysis notes that the combined $196, 000 worth of salaries of Crisalee Stevens and Matthew Burke - who were employed at the HSU to help directly with Mr Thomson's bid for Parliament - had been properly disclosed in HSU third party expenditure returns for 2006/07 and 2007/08. This afternoon Mr Thomson tweeted a short response to the electoral commission findings. "AEC report clearly shows FWA got it wrong on electoral expenses. Wonder how widely that gets reported!" The statement from the electoral commission comes as senior government frontbencher Simon Crean laid the boot into his former caucus colleague, saying it would be a mistake to preselect Mr Thomson. Mr Crean's comments came as the coalition flagged a possible referral of Mr Thomson to the parliamentary privileges committee after the MP was late to update his interests register about the NSW Labor Party paying his legal fees.

But there is uncertainty about whether Speaker Peter Slipper - who has stood aside from his position while sexual harassment claims are heard in court - would have the ultimate decision over referring the matter. Mr Thomson - the former general secretary of the Health Services Union from 2002 until his election as the Labor MP for Dobell in late 2007 - will make a statement to parliament on Monday to address the FWA claims that he misused $500, 000 in members Mr Crean said it would be a mistake to re-endorse Mr Thomson as a Labor candidate unless he was cleared of the allegations. ''If he's not cleared before preselections are held, I can't see him being preselected,'' Mr Crean told Sky News.

''He shouldn't be.'' Mr Crean said while he did not know the circumstances of the Dobell preselection before the 2010 election, ''it would appear that harder questions should have been asked''.

The allegations about misuse of union funds were first aired by Fairfax in April 2009. Meanwhile, the coalition says Mr Slipper should be excluded from any decision on referring Mr Thomson to the privileges committee. ''Peter Slipper should have absolutely no role in what the privileges committee decides,'' Liberal backbencher Josh Frydenberg told Sky News. The situation was ''farcical'' where the government was protecting Mr Slipper, who was protecting Mr Thomson, who in turn was backing the government with his vote. Mr Crean said he did not believe that it would be consistent with Mr Slipper having stepped aside for the Speaker to have a role in the decision.

But parliamentary standing order No.3 says that some matters are reserved only for the Speaker, or an acting speaker - which, under the rules, excludes deputy speaker Anna Burke. These matters include selecting a ''matter of public importance'', which is the debate which follows question time, and ''decisions on matters of privilege''. The parliament has been following this rule to the letter since Mr Slipper stood aside. The Hansard record shows he, and not Ms Burke, has been deciding on matters of public importance. To have a matter referred to the privileges committee for consideration of a contempt charge it must first be raised by an MP in the chamber, then the Speaker considers it and determines the referral.

An MP then moves a motion to refer it to the committee and it is voted on by the chamber. But Australia's electoral laws are set for a parliamentary review, following the AEC's investigation into the FWA report. Special Minister of State Gary Gray said the AEC had given him some "valuable recommendations" on amendments to the disclosure provisions of the Electoral Act and that he had referred the matter to the Parliament's committee on electoral matters. Loading In a statement this afternoon, the Special Minister of State also noted that the AEC had not identified any breaches of the Electoral Act by Mr Thomson.

With AAP