Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS (New South Wales) (00:23): I am, Mr Deputy President. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: There being no objection, leave is granted. Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: Thank you, Mr Deputy President. On the last occasion I spoke about the member for Dobell, I was referring to his latest transgressions. On 8 November I focused on his activities regarding Coastal Voice. I placed on the record some important evidence given to the New South Wales Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5 on 27 October by New South Wales Fair Trading officers regarding Coastal Voice. I concluded my remarks by posing two important questions. Firstly, how did an organisation like Coastal Voice, which had no bank account, no records and produced no financial returns, manage to print and distribute widely a number of glossy brochures promoting Craig Thomson and criticising the then incumbent Liberal MPs? It is hoped that the current inquiries by New South Wales and Victorian police will shed light on what appears to be further misappropriation of HSU funds in relation to Coastal Voice. And, secondly, Mr Thomson has recently provided a statutory declaration to New South Wales Fair Trading. Why did it take so long for him to provide information on Coastal Voice? Given Mr Thomson's track record with the truth, one must question whether all assertions in his statutory declaration are true. Part 4, section 25, of the Oaths Act New South Wales provides, for false declarations, that: … any person who wilfully and corruptly makes and subscribes any such declaration, knowing the same to be untrue in any material particular, shall be guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for 5 years. I advise the Senate that I am formally pursuing these matters. I now turn to the mounting evidence against both the member for Dobell and Mr Michael Williamson. In an article in the Weekend Australian on 12 November entitled 'Police tighten net in union graft probe', it states: NSW police are homing in on alleged corruption in the Health Services Union, demanding it provide documents including those related to the activities of union boss Michael Williamson and former HSU official and now Labor MP Craig Thomson. The article refers to the request made by New South Wales police to the HSU for 'a wish list seeking everything but the kitchen sink'. One hopes that the acting general secretary, Mr Peter Mylan, will be forthcoming in his assistance to Strike Force Carnarvon. Given the matters I raised on 20 September in this place and the dubious connection with United Edge, of which Mr Williamson is a director, I have my doubts about Mr Mylan's cooperation. United Edge operates out of the HSU East offices in Pitt Street but pays no rent. Mr Mylan, a fellow director with Mr Williamson on the First State Super board, approved a major IT contract that went to United Edge without going to tender and for which HSU members forked out twice for software systems. I hope that Mr Mylan's protestations of assistance to the police are sincere and not part of a cover-up for his union mates Messrs Williamson and Thomson. The article concludes with the following revelation to the Australian: … NSW police have received information from the US office of American Express, which keeps duplicate records of card transactions for 30 years, compared with only seven years in Australia. It is understood NSW police believe this information would place them in a strong position to bring charges against individuals. In another article on 14 November, the Sydney Morning Herald states: Meanwhile, the Herald has recently received documents showing further unusual credit card expenditure such as a union-issued Diners Card paying for $77,293 in airfares in June 2010. That same month a cheque for $51,282 was made out to Access Focus, a company not listed in the phone book nor registered with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, and United Edge, a company of which Mr Williamson is a director, received more than $200,000 from the HSU over a three-month period from July last year. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 17 September, certain events which took place at a routine HSU meeting chaired by Mr Williamson at the end of November 2009 are described. The article states: Expenditure was first on the list. Approval was requested to rubber-stamp cheque No. 16319 for the amount of $100,000 which had been paid to Access Focus in July 2009. The Herald has learnt that both before and after this date Access Focus received large payments. The mystery for many at the meeting was what Access Focus actually did. Union insiders told the Herald that ongoing requests as to why this entity was receiving such large sums have been met with obfuscation by the boss. Attempts by underlings to view the financial records of the union were stymied by Williamson, who controlled the finance department, union sources said. The Herald has been unable to find any such company and there is no business by that name recorded in the telephone directory. A computer company called Access Focus ceased trading 15 years ago. The Daily Telegraph of 17 November indicates: Police now have crucial American Express records of Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson and will interview the architect of Mr Williamson's home renovations to establish whether union funds paid for them. In previous speeches I have traversed the relationship between Mr Williamson and Mah-Chut Architects, but let me return to the meeting at the end of November 2009, where the nature of this relationship was very clear. The Sydney Morning Herald article of 17 September states: After discussing the $223,000 payment to the Tax Office for the month of July 2009, Williamson moved on to the next cheque. Dated August '09, cheque No. 16437 was a $100,000 payment to Mah-Chut Architects. This was the same firm of architects that was presiding over Williamson and his wife Julie's holiday home on the shore of Lake Macquarie. In August 2006, the pair had spent $470,000 buying a block of land at Brightwaters, on the shore of the lake. Two years later, they submitted plans to the local council for a $500,000 beach house. The plans were submitted by Mah-Chut Architects, despite the firm having been deregistered earlier that year after creditors voted to wind it up. The house ended up costing around $700,000 to build. On top of that, in March last year the Williamsons bought the block next door for $522,000 and then spent a further $80,000 installing a pool and spa. Mah-Chut Architects, which several years ago transformed the union's headquarters in Pitt Street into the gleaming, cutting-edge workplace it now is, was also employed by the Williamsons to renovate their Maroubra home in 2001. Much to the anger of their Maroubra neighbours, who objected to the size of the second-storey addition, the development was approved by the mayoral minute, despite Randwick Council's development officers having previously rejected it. In January 2010 another cheque for $154,000 was made out to Mah-Chut Architects and the following month another cheque for $114,212 was paid by the union. Earlier this year Mah-Chut billed the HSU $280,000. The Herald understands the invoice was for a feasibility study for possible renovations to the union's Victorian offices and for installing partitions in the Sydney office. Whilst the article states that there is no suggestion that Mah-Chut has acted improperly in relation to its work for the union or Mr Williamson, there is certainly an air of suspicion surrounding these payments. One would hope that Mah-Chut Architects are forthcoming in their assistance to the NSW Police when interviewed. With all these scandals it is not surprising that the HSU, and through it the union movement, is suffering. As Mr Marco Bolano, the Deputy Secretary of the HSU's Victorian branch told ABC News on 15 November: They've been lied to, they've been manipulated... some cases it's fear, in some cases it's blind loyalty fed by misinformation and I think it's an embarrassing day for the HSU. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 7 November entitled 'Doctors keen to leave Health Services Union' outlines how doctors have been turned off by the scandals. The article outlines: The doctors are the second group to say they no longer want the HSU to represent them. The Emergency Medical Service Protection Association says it has 2,500 paramedics and ambulance officers and wants to replace the HSU as their union. Recently we have seen traversed in the media the happenings at the annual general conference of the HSU. Like some scenes reminiscent of The Sopranos, we heard yet again of intimidation, threats and the thuggish antics of the NSW Right of the Australian Labor Party. On15 November the Australian reports that: Reformers in the Health Services Union yesterday accused the supporters of union boss Michael Williamson of employing 'Stalinist' tactics to stifle dissent and ensure a vote today to split the union. The two-day annual convention of … HSU East, began in Sydney yesterday with bitter division between Victorian supporters of executive president Kathy Jackson's campaign to expose alleged cronyism and illegal activity, and the dominant NSW faction controlled by Mr Williamson and his deputy Peter Mylan. The article quotes Ms Jackson, saying: … the convention was being run 'like North Korea' and she and her Victorian lieutenants were gagged. The article reports intimidation of delegates: Several reform delegates said they had been subject to intimidation and threats from NSW union officials. Pam Daniel, one of the few NSW delegates to speak, said a salaried union organiser had asked a meeting of her members to put a motion to the convention censuring Ms Jackson. The members refused. She said the organiser had discouraged her from signing a petition put forward by Ms Jackson, with the threat of legal action. The organiser declined to comment and did not answer written questions. Why all this intimidation? Because Ms Jackson has dared to refer to police allegations that Mr Thomson had misused his credit card. An insight into the Sydney meeting was given in an interview between Mr Marco Bolano, the Deputy General Secretary of the HSU East, and Ray Hadley on 2GB, on 16 November. Mr Bolano confirmed the threats made against him by Mr Williamson during a conversation regarding the motion moved against Ms Jackson: Enjoy the rest of your time in the union movement, I will destroy you … And there was an expletive in the middle there. Mr Bolano also spoke to Mr Hadley about the petition that Ms Jackson had recently circulated and the threats made to delegates. Many of them that spoke to us allege that they were told that if they signed that petition they would be sued. Ah, they talked about dirty tricks within their sub branches where, you know, they would be rolled. Mr Bolano went on: That they would be made unfinancial. That there, you know, financial muck up with the membership record and be told "oh, you're unfinancial." A range of tricks ... He went on in that vein and, effectively, explained what would be likely to happen to these delegates if they did not comply with the threats and the intimidation. Ms Jackson herself also spoke about the meeting in an interview with Chris Smith on 2GB, on 17 November. She spoke of intimidation and bullying of delegates to vote in the no-confidence motion against her. She said: I think a lot of people have been intimidated and continue to be intimidated. I find it an unfortunate set of events that we face in the Health Services Union. This is a good organisation. We're here to represent working men and women in the health sector and yet here we face this fight over, you know. All I'm trying to do is clean up this union. This is an anti-corruption fight. This is not about Victoria-NSW. This is about doing the right thing by our membership regardless of where they live. Ms Jackson went on: l am doing this, I've taken this action because at some point people have to stand up and do the right thing by working men and women. If money is being misappropriated, then we need to get to the bottom of that. This is an anticorruption fight, not a power struggle. And in a scathing indictment of the boys club in the Labor Council, she said: That's right. They can't take a trick. You know these people, I had the vain hope that maybe they'd see the light when these allegations were taken to the police. But instead they've bunkered down and its business as usual. And she posed this challenge: They think this plan is about splitting the Union, so they get rid of me and they get rid of any dissent and its business as usual like they have had. NSW has had a free hand for the last fifteen years. They can do no wrong. They hear no evil. They see no evil. They follow blindly. They rubber stamp. What I say is, if you've got nothing to hide, produce all the documentation to the police and the other relevant authorities. Don't hide behind the Council. Don't hide behind Michael Williamson and, you know, the truth will prevail. With this entrenched situation, one can only wonder what sort of cooperation the likes of Mr Williamson and Mr Mylan will give the New South Wales and Victorian police. But her most scathing criticism was levelled at the standover tactics of Sussex Street and the New South Wales Right. These are the faceless men who helped put Julia Gillard in The Lodge, who politically assassinated former Prime Minister Rudd and to whom Ms Gillard sold her political soul. Ms Jackson said: And Sussex Street and the NSW right are known for this. And I'm just sick of it. I'm sick to death of people outside this organisation trying to influence what happens inside the organisation. What I'm trying to do, and other people that are assisting me, is rooting out corruption in this Union and my advice to Sussex Street and the ALP is to get out of our affairs and let us clean up our Union for our membership. The following exchange about the criminal investigation demonstrates firsthand the seriousness of the allegations against Mr Thomson and Mr Williamson and what the police investigations are likely to uncover: Chris Smith: Are there people within the NSW Labor Council a little nervous about what the Victorian police investigation might uncover? Kathy Jackson: If they're not nervous they should be nervous. Chris Smith: Why? Kathy Jackson: I stand by my initial position which is: I've come to the view that there is serious misappropriation of funds occurring in this Union and it needs to be cleaned up. I stand by that. And of course all this leads back to the Gillard government. This is what is at the heart of all the resistance, the bullying, the standover tactics and the intimidation. The reason for that is that this could all lead to charges being laid against the member for Dobell and it would impact on the survival of the Gillard government. The following exchange says it all: Chris Smith: Do you think this all began because the Executive was scared that any investigations into Craig Thomson might lead to a change in Government? Kathy Jackson: Um ... Chris Smith: Has this been the motivation for this from the beginning? Not from you, but from those who would stop you doing what you've done? Kathy Jackson: Yes. Chris Smith: They were scared that any investigation would lead to charges against Craig Thomson, which would lead to the dissolution of this current government. Kathy Jackson: Yes, yes. I believe that. I strongly believe that. And so where is the Gillard government in all of this? Does the Prime Minister support Ms Jackson's attempts to clean up the HSU or does her silence on the matter infer tacit condoning of those persecuting the HSU national secretary? When asked in question time, on 21 November, by Senator Ronaldson whether the Prime Minister would publicly and unequivocally back Ms Jackson's actions in blowing the whistle on the member for Dobell, all we got from the Leader of the Government in the Senate was a diatribe about slurring people up and jumping to conclusions. There appears to have been no public utterance by the Prime Minister on this matter, despite the deep involvement of key New South Wales Right figures. So where does the Prime Minister stand? Alongside Ms Jackson, who is trying to expose corruption and misappropriation, or alongside those seeking to intimidate and bully her into silence—the faceless men who put Ms Gillard in The Lodge? We come back to the New South Wales Right. It was interesting to read the article in the Sydney Morning Herald, of 22 November, entitled 'Link by link, the powerbrokers of the Right emerge'. Interestingly, more details are emerging about the real estate purchases of two key figures of the New South Wales Right, Senator the Hon. Mark Arbib and the Hon. Eric Roozendaal. They must be on the way down, given the increasing number of leaks against them. I quote: It was in July 2003 that Eric Roozendaal and Mark Arbib—both prodigious fundraisers through their then positions— Senator Carol Brown: Mr Deputy President, I rise on a point of order. I ask the honourable senator to address the senator by his right title. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I remind you, Senator Fierravanti-Wells, that if you address senators then you should do so by their correct title. Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: Thank you, Deputy President. I did refer to Senator the Hon. Mark Arbib. Senator Carol Brown: No, you didn't. Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: I did. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! You have the call, Senator Fierravanti-Wells. Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: Perhaps, Senator Carol Brown, if you had woken up and listened then you would have heard what I had to say. I quote: It was in July 2003 that Eric Roozendaal and Mark Arbib—both prodigious fundraisers through their then positions as head and deputy head of the NSW Labor party—completed their respective real estate purchases. Neither has been able to explain what coincidence led to them purchasing boutique beachside apartments not only in the same suburb but also in the very same block. I will leave these real estate issues to another day. The focus of the article was on the connection between Senator Arbib, Mr Roozendaal and their friend Alexandra Williamson, who still works for the Prime Minister and house shares in Canberra. It is indeed a complex web of— (Time expired)