FED:Govt says Thomson police probe is a stunt

AAP General News (Australia)
08-22-2011
FED:Govt says Thomson police probe is a stunt

CANBERRA, Aug 22 AAP - The federal government has dismissed as a stunt a coalition
plan to refer embattled Labor MP Craig Thomson to the NSW police.

The member for Dobell repeatedly has denied using a union credit card to pay for escort
services, saying it was regularly used by other people within the Health Services Union
when he was national secretary.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis says if that's the case then a police
investigation is warranted.

"It is a crime in NSW to use someone else's credit card for your own personal expenses,"

he told ABC Radio on Monday.

"If Mr Thomson isn't telling the truth then it seems reasonably clear that at least
some of the outlays from his union credit card were for personal expenses."

Fair Work Australia is investigating the union, but Senator Brandis said that inquiry
was limited to industrial matters.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Senator Brandis' police referral should not
be taken seriously.

"Authorities don't need Senator George Brandis," he told reporters in Canberra.

"It is just a stunt ... which is why he is not taken seriously in terms of his position
as shadow attorney-general."

Mr Albanese said he had no reason to doubt Mr Thomson's denial of any wrongdoing.

"It is the case that certain allegations have been made, the member for Dobell has
denied them, this has been an issue that has been around for some period of time," he
said.

"...people are innocent of any allegations until they are proven."

Mr Albanese also rejected the coalition's call on Sunday for Mr Thomson to be stripped
of his economics committee chairmanship.

The minister said the only parliamentary member facing actual charges was Liberal senator
Mary Jo Fisher, chairwoman of the Senate's environment committee, who is due to appear
in court over allegedly stealing groceries from a supermarket.

"What we need here is a bit of consistency," Mr Albanese said.

There was no room on the parliamentary schedule this week for Mr Thomson to give a
public explanation, and in any case a "very public discussion has occurred" on the matter.

Meanwhile, opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb says Fair Work Australia appears
to to have been caught "seriously flat-footed" by its pedestrian approach to the issues.

He said the Australian Securities and Investment Commission should be given the power
to oversee union finances.

AAP pjo/rl/it

KEYWORD: THOMSON UPDATE

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