Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Abetz: they were findings by Fair Work Australia—and who could argue with that august body! They found that Mr Thomson grossly misused union funds. I say to you, Mr Acting Deputy President, that I am absolutely certain that Mr Craig Thomson was not the only union leader ever involved in that sort of activity.

This article from Grace Collier makes very good reading, from what I would call an insider in the union movement. She went on to say:

In the 1990s, the aura around Bruce Wilson of the Australian Workers Union was such that he was touted as a future prime minister.

You will remember that Mr Bruce Wilson, whom I am talking about, is the guy involved in the slush fund affair which has engulfed Ms Gillard. The article continued:

Our Prime Minister made a decision to begin a relationship with him. Partners of law firms don't recommend having relationships with people who work in their clients' businesses. It is not considered appropriate to put yourself in a potentially compromising position. The worst can happen, and for our Prime Minister it did. Now we find ourselves in the position we are in today.

This was at the height of the Gillard-Wilson scandal over Slater and Gordon and the slush fund. Ms Collier went on to say:

Over the past 11 years, I have been called upon to investigate many people for workplace misconduct. The hardest people to investigate are high-achieving, high-profile women executives. Their starting position is always a haughty refusal to answer questions or participate in investigations they consider beneath them.

I might say that I am quoting from a woman journalist who is an insider in the union movement. She continued:

Next they attempt to retain control by trying to impose their conditions and time frames on the investigation. (Time expired)