Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on matters pertinent to the member for Dobell. Since I last spoke about this matter, who would have thought that we would have seen this matter descend even further into sleaze and sordid tales such as have been revealed by the Fair Work Australia report. We have also seen the raiding of the HSU office in New South Wales. Having now given a series of speeches in this place, I am pleased to see that not only that many of the matters that I have traversed have been covered but also matters that I foreshadowed in certain speeches have now been contained in this report.

It is interesting to see that the Prime Minister continues to accept the tainted vote of Mr Thomson. It is interesting to see this evening that Mr Thomson was not present when the Leader of the Opposition not surprisingly was providing an absolute reality check to the political squalor that this government has now become. It is interesting to see that the member for Dobell was not present. We have seen headlines in recent times, such as 'Sordid union allegations leave questions hanging' and 'Escorts, campaign funds put on Thomson's card'. Yes, they are sensational and I am sure we are all looking forward to hearing the member for Dobell provide his explanations of what can only be described as something that this country has never seen.

Yes, over half a million dollars of hard-earned members' money was improperly used, including on cash withdrawals, meals, electioneering and more than $5,000 on escort services. Of the 181 contraventions of law and union rules, Fair Work Australia found 156 of those related to Mr Thomson. The newspapers have traversed some of this misuse. As I said, procurement services, more than $100,000 on cash withdrawals, entertainment expenses, staff employed for Mr Thomson to win the seat of Dobell—and I will come back to these matters at another time—union funds, as I have said, used to pay people on Coastal Voice, which is one of the organisations set up by Mr Thomson in Dobell to win that seat.

I want to come to an example of the rank hypocrisy of the member for Dobell. In 2007, amongst the many documents and the many matters that have now come to light, probably the rankest example of hypocrisy by Mr Thomson was the fraudulent publications put out by Coastal Voice, which editorialised on issues relating to integrity in public office, lambasting the local council for allowing councillors to go on junkets—this coming from Mr Thomson. Indeed, the concern was so great that reference was had to the waste of these 'hard-earned dollars of ratepayers'. Can you believe that? All this from a man who, from the evidence provided by the Fair Work Australia report, has been shown to have misused over half a million dollars of union dues of some of the lowest-paid workers in Australia.

All the while, while this stuff was appearing and being editorialised by Mr Thomson and his cronies in Coastal Voice, Mr Thomson was doing exactly that, and a lot worse, to the hard-working members of the HSU to whom he owed the highest duty as its national secretary. That is breathtaking hypocrisy. Here he is using money going off to escort services, using the hard-earned money of some of the lowest-paid workers in this country, and publicly lambasting councillors for allegedly going on junkets. Well, I am sure there is more to come.

Then it is not surprising that yesterday evening Wyong Council formally called for Mr Thomson to immediately resign. One only has to walk down the streets in the seat of Dobell to understand how his constituents are ashamed of him. They are ashamed of his behaviour. They are ashamed to say that they live in this seat and say it is time for him to go. There was Mr Thomson yesterday evening criticising the local councillors. Mind you, these are the same local councillors that I have spoken about in relation to Central Coast Group Training, the place where Mr Thomson tried to get a job for his former wife. All the while he has been working behind the scenes to make sure that the $2.7 million that had been promised for the jobs youth centre is not provided—the same area that I have been trying to get documents from this government. I have now had to ask for documents under freedom of information. This government, along with the Greens, shut down the debate so that I could not get documents and the matter could not be debated.

Here is Mr Thomson—the hypocrisy of the man—saying that he is flattered by their attentions while he has been out there fighting for various things in Dobell. I think he might have been fighting but it certainly was not for his constituents. It was probably on his back. Anyway, it does not surprise me that Councillor Best and Councillor Eaton—and I commend them for taking this action—issued a petition. They have had responses from all over the state, not just in Dobell. I look forward to this petition being lodged in the House of Representatives. I wish them well for getting the thousands of signatures that maybe might convince Mr Thomson that it is time to go. So it comes as no surprise to me to read that the Labor Party are continuing to foot the legal bills of Mr Thomson. I have come into this place and given no fewer than 11 speeches where I have continually talked about the fact that the New South Wales Labor Party have paid up to a quarter of a million dollars of Mr Thomson's legal fees post the defamation proceedings—and nobody on the other side has come in and contradicted that figure. That does not surprise me now; he must be getting some pretty hefty bills. And the Labor Party are continuing to pay his legal expenses. It is very clear that there was the $200,000, as he has amended his register of interests—but what else has he not disclosed? What else is the Labor Party footing? Is it just the legal expenses? What else has the Labor Party footed the bill for?

One only has to look at the preposterous explanations that Mr Thomson is giving in relation to the lavish spending on the prostitutes, the entertainment, the travel and his 2007 Dobell campaign. The fact that now Mr Thomson is reportedly suggesting that his financial support by the New South Wales ALP had only been in the last two weeks is equally preposterous, because the truth is very clear—Labor officials are now going on the record about this tranche of legal expenses. To quote a spokesman from the New South Wales ALP: 'The ALP finance and administrative committee resolved to provide him assistance in September last year.' So I would say that that $200,000 is only the tip of the iceberg.

But we have known for a long time about Mr Thomson, and the Labor Party has known for a long time about Mr Thomson—indeed, Mark Davis broke the story in 2009. I am reminded of the article that Paul Sheehan wrote in the Sydney Morning Heraldon 10 May: 'Thomson charade still going as the players await a final curtain'. All I can say for the constituents of Dobell is that I hope that final curtain falls sooner rather than later.

But the thing that probably leaves, for me as a female politician, the bitterest taste in my mouth is to watch a female Prime Minister and how she continues to politically prostitute herself to defend a man who has abused the trust—

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Fierravanti-Wells, I think that is unparliamentary and I ask you to withdraw that comment.

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

Mr Acting Deputy President, on the point of order—

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I have not given you the call yet, Senator Macdonald. Senator Macdonald?

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

Mr Acting Deputy President, I seek to speak to your so-called ruling. The term 'political prostitute' is often used, and has no connotations of sexuality, as it is used in the case with the member for Dobell. But that is terminology that is often used here, and it is not unparliamentary.

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. Once again, Senator Fierravanti-Wells, I seek to have you withdraw that comment. Thank you.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw the comment. I cannot believe that a female Prime Minister stands beside a man who has abused the trust of thousands of lowly-paid, mainly female aged-care and hospital workers, by wasting their hard-earned union dues on prostitutes—all to save her political skin. It is an absolute disgrace that a female Prime Minister is doing this.