A Hard Rains Gonna Fall

Follow @madwixxy

It was a cold and wet Tuesday night in NSW. Enough to dampen even the most enthusiastic of spirits.

On the Central coast, Craig Thomson sat down to a homemade vegetable risotto with his wife Zoe, and tried to stay positive. In Sydney, I was with my wife, Felicity, scouring our way through bank statements, looking for clues as to where the HSU members funds were being spent.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, Kathy Jackson, was being wined and dined by the Liberal Party’s elite. Kathy was the guest of honour, and key-note speaker at a HR Nicholl’s function.

I saw footage of some of Kathy’s speech, she sounded a little shaky, unsure of her words, almost like someone else had written her speech for her. On top of this, Kathy looked liked she had aged 10 years in the last 2 weeks, and I’m sure the bags under her eyes weren’t the type that are imported from Italy.

Her speech was the usual drivel you would expect from a union leader… an honour to be with a Liberal crowd, how awesome Tony Abbott’s policies are, that sort of thing.

Still, many said that it was great to see her dad looking so proud, sitting there next to her. He was beaming from ear to ear, some would say he looked smitten even, like the cat that swallowed the canary. Then they realised it was just Peter Reith, it was an easy mistake to make as nobody had ever seen Reith smile so much before.

The happy couple share a moment

Since then things have only gotten worse for Kathy. Her Federal Court Case is not going at all well, and the events in court on Friday are almost laughable. Unfortunately Federal Court is not the place for jokes, as it demeans the status of the court itself.

Probably the strangest part was when Kathy was seeking to once again have the case adjourned. Kathy presented the judge, Justice Flick with a psychiatrists certificate to justify the request, fair enough you would think. Alas, the certificate was not signed, making it useless, to add further insult, it was not even dated, needless to say Justice Flick was having none of it. Still, there were those in the court as spectators who were quietly impressed that it was not written in crayon.

Alas, this week is not going to be much better in Jacksonville, in fact things are likely to become worse, much worse.

For starters the Federal Court case is set to reach its finale on Thursday. Kathy looks to walk away from this with a red face and a massive legal bill. I hate to think how many fundraisers Alan Jones is going to have to do to sort this bill out.

Add to this, the Victorian Police investigation is starting to ramp up a notch. Even some elements of the media are starting to see through the well thought out, and meticulously planned, “that’s a bunch of crap” defense when it comes to the documents we have presented, and the questions they raise.

However, in order to ease the burden on Kathy, I have been able to answer one question myself.

Some of you may remember the letter acting secretary Peter Mylan sent to the Volvo dealer Kathy’s SUV came from. He was querying what happened to the approximately $5000 the HSU overpaid for the vehicle according to the invoice and payment amount signed off by Kathy.

Volvo Letter and Payment

Well, as you will see by the below documentation, I have solved this one. I have received a photocopy of the cheque and it is made out to cash. The dealer may not have even seen the extra money and therefore ignored Mylan’s letter. I still wonder where the missing $5,000 went though…

Volvo Cash Cheque

Anyway, many of you will remember Jeff Jackson, he is Kathy’s ex husband, and an ex secretary of HSU Branch 1. He is also the lovely bloke who likes to ski in his spare time, but does not like to work with people with disabilities, sacking those with Multiple Sclerosis.

Jeff Jackson Ski Club

Some of you my also remember Kathy Jackson saying that nobody other than Craig Thomson had spent union members money on prostitutes. She stated this in many interviews.

So what do they spend their money on? What important union business goes onto the union credit cards?

Luckily, approximately 3 years worth of credit card statements have landed in our laps, so we have been able to see for ourselves. The credit card belonged to Jeff Jackson, and is the card for HSU Branch number 1.

I have put a link below to a summary page which gives a breakdown of the amounts and types of transactions, and also a link to the 160 odd pages of the actual statement for those who wish to see for themselves.

Please note, the dates on this summary page are the dates the transaction went through at the bank, not the date the actual transaction took place, there is a delay due to bank notification and processing.

Jeff Jackson Card Summary

The total spend over this period is $128,321.94.

Still, at least it was on union business.

$9,898.35 at supermarkets and bottle shops. $9,185.86 on Homewares, including $1,025 at Bunnings. $1,600.06 on Foxtel, gee, I hope he got the adult channels for that price. Over $9,000 in Hong Kong and China. Over $29,000 in restaurants and bars, at least he didn’t go hungry. And, of course $2,410 in brothels.

Hang on. Brothels? Kathy said this didn’t happen, maybe it was just a one-off. Nope, it seems we have 6 separate visits to brothels charged to the members, including 2 visits to the brothel Thomson was accused of using.

Jeff Jackson Credit Card Details

Another spend on the statements the union members would be pleased with, is on the 21/04/04 for $240 at Loving Promises at Sydney Airport, a ladies lingerie store. I do hope that Kathy scrubbed up OK in whatever it was. I’m sure the members hope it was worth the spend. Then again maybe it was a present for one of Jeff’s friends in the red-light district, we may never know.

Jeff Jackson – What do you mean hookers aren’t a legitimate expense?

This is not the first time Jeff has been accused of running amok with union members funds either. As the document linked below shows, questions over Jeff’s spending have been raised for years.

Jeff has also tried to say that his travel on union funds was approved by the BCOM. We have been told by several sources that this is totally false, and as yet Jeff has been unable tp produce documentation, or minutes of meetings to support his claim.

I wonder if he also expects us to believe the BCOM also approved his Foxtel subscription and brothel visits.

Jeff Jackson Rorting Union Document

If you are a union member now, I cannot imagine how angry this must make you. To think that somebody you put so much trust in, someone who was supposed to be on your side would use your union funds as a personal bank account. Over $128,000 in 3 years, that is disgraceful.

At least you know that Jeff is gone now, and that this won’t happen again, right?

Unfortunately, we don’t have the statements for the 2 credit cards that Kathy Jackson uses, so we are unable to see what she spends the members money on. That would have been an interesting exercise.

The fact is, Kathy does not spend union money like Jeff, not at all. Kathy actually puts Jeff to shame…

While we do not have the statements for Kathy’s credit cards, we do have the statements for HSU Branch 3’s cheque account for a 2 year period. These have some things worth noting on them.

For starters, the repayments to Kathy’s 2 credit cards over a 2 year period were a mind-boggling $154,619.48. That is over $20,000 more than Jeff spent, but in one years less time.

I am quite sure the members, and the Victorian Police are going to be quite interested to hear what that was spent on. I hope you kept the statements Kathy, if not, don’t worry, I’m sure the administrator, or the next auditor can ask the bank for a copy.

Another thing that surprised me was the fluctuation in the wages bill. Up until May 2010 they were relatively similar, but by June 2010 they were more than double the usual.

Some would say that maybe more casuals were used, or maybe some bonuses were paid. However the number 3 branch was part of the merger on May 24, after that date there should be no wages bill for number 3 branch at all, instead we have over $110,000 coming out of the account as wages.

Below are links to the bank statements, and also a summary page of the credit cards and the wages taken from the account.

Kathy Jackson Credit Card Payments and Branch 3 wages

HSU 3 Branch Bank Statements

What bank statements? Kathy Jackson looking less than convincing

One of the most alarming things about the evidence we have uncovered, is that it was totally missed by the Fair Work Australia investigation.

Some would say that it is evidence of corruption, some would say it was proof of utter incompetence. Either way it is no wonder that both Michael Lawler, Kathy’s partner, and Terry Nassios, the lead investigator went on sudden “long leave” just as Craig Thomson gave his response in parliament.

Long Leave?

Fair Work Australia had 4 long years of investigation into the union, myself and Independent Australia have had a few weeks. FWA have had an investigative team at their disposal, we have had to rely on “wearing out the shoe leather” style of investigation.

It seems inconceivable to me that they managed to find what they did on Thomson, which has now been virtually cleared, but yet missed all the Jackson documentation. This makes me question whether this was a witch-hunt, and also question Michael Lawler’s influence and involvement in what direction the FWA investigation took.

It would appear to me that looking for evidence was a bit like the old “haystack scenario”. The investigators found the needle in the haystack with Thomson’s name on it, but failed to see the dancing elephant with the flashing lights on it marked “Jackson” next to the haystack.

Corruption or incompetence? I’ll let you make up your own mind.

Until a Judicial Inquiry is launched, we may never know.

But after all is said and done, at least we know Kathy is there for the staff. She would never turn her back on them, or offer them up on a silver platter.

On the day before the police raid, a raid that the police involved have allegedly referred to as a “Dummy” Kathy was there to boost staff morale. Kathy was reportedly taking photo’s of the staff in the lunchroom as they ate lunch, strange behavior indeed. Especially when you consider that she flew up from Melbourne for the occasion.

The next day, the surprise police raid that nobody knew was coming occurred. By sheer chance, Kathy was out the front at the time talking to the press who then stayed to watch the “Dummy” raid and take photo’s or film the staff as they left. As the office is in a skyscraper, it shows just how perceptive the press are these days that they knew exactly which people to film, almost like they had seen photographs from the day before. Quite amazing.

As things start to fall apart for the Jacksonville clan, Kathy and Jeff Jackson, and of course Michael Lawler, the Fair Work Australia connection, it is interesting to see friends back away.

The Coalition, in particular Tony Abbott, seem to be trying to distance themselves. It must be great to have a friend like Tony, singing your praises in parliament one day, and turning his back and running from you the next. All over some allegations of embezzlement.

Call it a hunch, but I think Tony Abbott is going to look back and regret 2 days in his past. The day he appointed Michael Lawler, and the day he sang the praises of Kathy Jackson in front of the world.

A storm is brewing, and I think everybody living in Jacksonville is going to get drenched…

Follow @madwixxy