Thomson claims vindication after report savages Fair Work

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Melissa Clarke explains the latest twists and turns in the HSU saga (ABC News)

Independent MP Craig Thomson says he has been vindicated after an independent report savaged the Fair Work Australia probe into his time as a union boss.

Officials from Fair Work Australia will face a grilling by a Parliamentary Committee this morning after the damning assessment of its four-year probe into the Health Services Union.

The report by accounting firm KPMG says Fair Work Australia was not experienced in the conduct of investigations, was deficient in its planning, management and execution of the investigation, and there were no qualified or experienced investigators involved.

It also says Fair Work failed to consider all sources of information which could have led to additional lines of inquiry, and security arrangements over documents were inadequate.

Mr Thomson, the former Labor MP who now sits as an independent, says the allegations that he misused union credit cards to pay for prostitutes have now been completely discredited.

And he says Fair Work will not now be able to proceed with a threatened civil case against him.

"Fair Work Australia have totally bungled this right from the start. This is what I have said right from the start," he said.

"I have always said I am innocent. This is an indictment on Fair Work Australia in terms of its expertise, its ability.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Craig Thomson hits back at his critics on ABC News Breakfast (ABC News)

"I'm not quite sure how anyone thinks they could prosecute this after a report like this. I mean, it's absolutely damning and scathing in every respect of that report.

"If anyone thinks that they're going to then go out and take civil action based on this report, well I think they’re living in a dreamland."

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast this morning, Mr Thomson turned his fire on Kathy Jackson, the current national secretary of the HSU.

"[ABC Online political correspondent] Simon Cullen wrote a story some time ago about the so-called whistleblower being investigated by the police, the Daily Telegraph went further in terms of that yesterday," he said.

"I do note from the KPMG report that the one person who refused to cooperate and provide their computer, their telephone records, their emails, was bizarrely the vice-president, the second in charge of Fair Work Australia, who also happens to be Kathy Jackson's partner.

"So that's a very strange situation to have the second in charge not cooperating with their own internal report."

He also took aim at the Opposition, which has vociferously pursued him over the affair.

"The Coalition have been banging on for a couple of years on a witch-hunt where they have been totally wrong on every issue," he said.

"They've been totally wrong on the facts of the issue. They are standing here with egg all over their faces."

'No political interference'

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Bill Shorten talks to ABC News Breakfast (ABC News)

Workplace Relations Minster Bill Shorten says the KPMG report should not mean taking a wrecking ball to Fair Work Australia.

But he declined to say that he agreed that Mr Thomson had been vindicated, telling the ABC that it would be up to the courts to judge.

"All of the matters are going to have to be tested in court," he said.

"Despite what the Opposition was saying that there was some sort of conspiracy or cover-up, KPMG's quite harsh report about what went wrong in the inquiry certainly makes it clear there was no political interference."

But Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz says the KPMG report has found not everything was uncovered.

"If anything, Craig Thomson ought to thanking Fair Work Australia for being incompetent and not giving this matter the degree of urgency that it deserved, as a result of which he finds himself still in the Parliament," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Opposition Senator Eric Abetz says the KPMG report does not vindicate Craig Thomson (ABC News)

Fair Work's Terry Nassios was the lead investigator on the report into the HSU, and will be grilled about the KPMG findings by a parliamentary committee this morning.

It is the second time Mr Nassios has been questioned by the committee, but the first time he will appear in person.

Fair Work says it has improved its practices and will take all steps necessary to hold all unions to account in future.

Mr Thomson, who sits on the crossbenches in the House of Representatives, is still the subject of a number of police investigations.

Topics: unions, federal-parliament, alp, health-administration, australia, vic, nsw

First posted