Father Of Mine

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I have been writing articles about Jacksonville, and it’s inhabitants for quite a while now. So, just for a change I thought it was about time we looked at another friend, well, ex-friend of Kathy Jackson, and his involvement in alleged misadventures with HSU funds.

However, you may have to bear with me, as there is not a lot of documentation I have received on any of these allegations. It seems any evidence against him was either found by police, or is rumoured to be held by someone else.

Dark Forces at work perhaps?

His name is Michael Williamson, and for many years he was the General Secretary of a union we have all become rather familiar with, the Health Services Union, or HSU.

Michael Williamson ex-friend of Kathy Jackson

Some of you may also remember a post I did a while back which went into some family favours that were going on inside the HSU in regards to paid positions. I reported that Michael Lawler, the VP of Fair Work Australia, had two of his children working at girlfriend, Kathy Jackson’s branch. FWA, of course were the body that did that investigation into any aspect of the HSU that seemingly didn’t involve a Jackson, the only investigation to implicate Lawler’s girlfriend’s apparent scapegoat, Craig Thomson.

Speaking of “Fair Work”, Lawlers kids seemed to be paid a real “Fair” wage for “Fairly” little work, if any…. A good deal more than some of the unions members who work a “fairly” long day in “fairly” crappy conditions…

Well it seems that Michael Lawler wasn’t the only one with family that was involved in lucrative dealings with the HSU. Michael Williamson’s family were well entrenched also. In fact, they appear to be in it so deep they need Wellington Boots and a shovel.

Some of you may be wondering why I am bringing this information up now, when it has been readily available previously.

The answer is simple, although the majority of the documentation, and questions involving Kathy Jackson, Michael Lawler, and even Jeff Jackson are related to new findings, I believe it is important to show a complete picture. The picture would be in no way complete without looking at Williamson.

Michael Williamson was elected to the position of State Secretary of the Association, known as the Health and Research Employees Association of NSW in 1995. Whilst there the rules changed, and he became General Secreatary. In 2003 a decision was made to adopt a new logo, and change the name of the union to the Health Services Union.

Changing names and logo’s were not the only changes made unfortunately. It is fair to say that there was a drastic change in the way the union was run, and a union that is supposed to be “for the members” seemed to become anything but.

Below is an email from Kathy Jackson to Peter Mylan, raising her concerns quite spectacularly regarding Williamson’s behaviour and the police investigations into his conduct, such as she herself is facing now. I wonder if she has a feeling of Deja Vu, or maybe a sense of irony…

Jackson email

So, what is all the fuss about Canme Services, at any rate?

In a situation that is remarkably similar to the Neranto Number 10, or the K. Koukouvaos Consulting scandals, the consulting companies owned by Jackson, that invoiced the HSU for vast sums of money. Canme Services is owned by Julieanne Williamson, Michael’s wife.

Canme Services, for those who doubt the Williamson family connection, owes it strange name to the family. You see, Christopher, Alexandra, Nicholas, Madeline, and Elizabeth, CANME, are the Williamson children.

Canme Services were paid the extortionate amount of $384,625 by the unions membership. That is an awful lot of money to be shelled out by any stretch of the imagination, and one would hope that everything had been disclosed to the membership, and the executive committee of the union, given that the company being paid is owned by General Secretary’s wife.

One would be disappointed. It seems that nobody was aware of the family connection other than Williamson himself.

The services provided by Canme Services were to do with the electronic storage of old documentation. Old records and documentation were to be scanned in, and then saved onto the HSU network.

Although this seems both an expensive, and a lengthy process, it does seem to be a task that needed performing. However, where it becomes a bit puzzling is where the records list this as clerical or secretarial services. Not only that, it seems that although Mrs Williamson was flat out for 7 years doing it, a substantial amount of document scanning and uploading still had to be done in-house. From what I understand, there is not a lot of information on the system from the periods supposedly scanned in anyway. Hardly one years worth of scanning allegedly, let alone seven.

Anyway, these matters are being looked into by the NSW police.

Nice Singlet

On a separate issue, I’m a bit of a music fan, I love seeing bands perform at pubs and clubs. It is important that these bands have places to rehearse, and these places can be quite pricey to set up.

There is a way of setting up a rehearsal studio cheaper though. Ensure that you daddy runs a union.

In 2006, the HSU under Williamson’s control spent $800,000 of the members money on a warehouse. That, to me is 800,000 litres of blood sweat and tears, from some of the countries hardest working, yet most underpaid workforce. So it would want to be a warehouse that the members thought held something pretty damn important.

Important to a member it may well be, if they are in a rock band.

You see, this $800,000 warehouse near Sydney Airport was used as Studio 19, a rehearsal studio. Funnily enough, the person running the studio goes by the name of Chris, or Christopher Williamson, also known as the C in Canme Services. The members will be pleased to know however, that Michael didn’t overcharge his son Chris on the rent. Actually, it would seem he forgot to charge him rent at all.

I wonder if Union members got a discount rate?

Chris was a part of Tank Stream Productions, the media studio arm of the HSU. Interestingly, Kate McClymont reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, that according to the HSU Financial report, in 2010 the HSU spent $140,000 on the “HSU History And Media Centre”.  Hmmm

This does not even include salaries, or payments to freelancers for the “so-called” Dream Team… what a nightmare.

The members must be chuffed to bits….

The saga continues.

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