Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS (New South Wales) (23:19): Mr President, I seek leave to speak for up to 20 minutes. Leave granted. Senator FIERRAVANTI-WELLS: I rise this evening to speak out on the government's continued hiding of important documents pertaining to the member for Dobell. Over a year ago I commenced a freedom of information request in relation to certain documents pertaining to the $2.7 million jobs incubator promised at the last election to be established as a partnership between Wyong Shire Council and Central Coast Group Training. The documents I sought covered representations made by Mr Thomson to ministers in relation to this project. In particular I was seeking evidence of efforts I believed Mr Thomson had made to scuttle CCGT's involvement in the project. The Labor government has gone to extraordinary lengths to block access to these documents. In March this year I sought an order for production in the Senate. The debate was shut down by Labor and their Green alliance partners. On 21 March I asked Senator Kim Carr, representing Mr Garrett, a series of questions about representations made by Craig Thomson to the minister in relation to the project. Those questions were responded to with blather and what is now evident was clearly misleading information—as shown by documents that have been produced to me not by the Commonwealth of Australia but by Wyong Shire Council. When I was unable to obtain documents from the government I approached Wyong Shire Council, which has released to me a folder full of documents including the documents the government had been refusing to produce or had heavily redacted. Despite continued exchanges with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and now a substituted decision in this matter—following my approach to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner—DEEWR has still not released the information sought. The myriad documents that have been provided to me by Wyong Shire Council clearly show that Mr Thomson intervened with Minister Garrett, seeking to discredit Councillors Best and Eaton from CCGT in a deliberate attempt to stop the jobs incubator going ahead as was originally intended; namely, as a joint partnership between Wyong Shire Council and CCGT on council owned land in Wyong. These were the parameters for which $2.7 million was allocated at the 2010 election. The documents to which I have still been denied full access by DEEWR, but which have been supplied by the Wyong Shire Council, still have huge slabs of material redacted. This is clearly an attempt by the government to censor the parts where Mr Thomson sought to intervene in the process by besmirching Councillor Best and then Mayor Doug Eaton. In the latest iteration of my FOI request, one additional but heavily redacted document has been produced which confirms the assertion that I previously made, and that is that it is clear that Minister Carr in answering questions to me in this place was misleading. When I questioned Minister Carr about attempts by Craig Thomson to derail the project he said there had been the usual communication between the minister and the member about the progress of the project. DEEWR's substituted decision contains the same words as those in the question time brief. But the letter forwarded by Mr Thomson to Minister Garrett dated 20 July 2011—and obtained from Wyong Shire Council, which received a copy—can in no way be described as 'the usual communications that have occurred between local members of parliament and ministers in regard to progress on projects in their electorates'. The unredacted letter obtained from Wyong Shire Council clearly shows that Mr Thomson sought to discredit Councillors Best and Eaton and put the kybosh on their participation in the jobs incubator project. This could not in any way be described as normal correspondence, and I believe that Minister Carr's statement to this effect was misleading. I now move to another disgraceful attempt by the Australian Labor Party to cover up documents pertaining to Craig Thomson. Since May this year I have been seeking the public release of the attachments to the Fair Work Australia report into the Health Services Union and Mr Thomson. Those documents are referred to in the report. There are seven lever arch folders of documents which were forwarded to the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. It is clear that the Australian Labor Party and the Greens alliance partners are conspiring to prevent media focus on Craig Thomson through access to those documents. The committee has decided not to release the documents and accordingly they will not receive the proper scrutiny that they deserve. I have personally read all seven folders and it is very clear to me that release of these documents would considerably add to the public understanding of the matters that were traversed in the Fair Work Australia report and indeed would provide a further understanding of the extent of Mr Thomson's activities. However, given the strict nature of the committee's ruling in relation to these documents, I am not allowed to disclose the material that I have read. I am not allowed to make comments about what the documents contain. But if released I believe that they could well shed light on further misuse of HSU funds. Those documents may, for instance, shed further light on Mr Thomson's extracurricular activities and no doubt generate more negative and bad headlines for him. Having read every page of these seven lever arch folders, I believe that the Australian Labor Party will do everything possible to ensure that these documents never see the light of day. One wonders why the Australian Labor Party and in particular senior ministers, such as Minister Albanese, appear to be rehabilitating Mr Thomson. We saw Mr Thomson recently at the opening of the GP superclinic at Woongarrah, which indeed has given Mr Thomson a fair share of headaches. I would remind the Senate that this is the GP superclinic that was promised quite a number of years ago. It has taken years and lots of heartache to provide a GP superclinic on the Central Coast. It is, I might add, a quarter of the original size that was promised by the Rudd-Gillard Labor government. I would remind the Senate that it was a comment by Councillor Best in a local radio interview about the government's lack of progress and delay in finalising the GP superclinic that led Craig Thomson to send his 'bye-bye jobs incubator' threat to Councillor Best on 15 July 2011. Of course, in the debacle that has become the legislation pertaining to the super trawler we even saw Mr Thomson putting forward amendments to the shambolic fishing legislation in the House of Representatives last week. I am sure that many scratched their heads and wondered why Mr Thomson had suddenly taken an interest in fishing. But it is perhaps not surprising to some of us, given his extensive knowledge of fishnets acquired no doubt in his trawling through many less than salubrious establishments around the country. But back to the rehabilitation of Mr Thomson. As I indicated earlier, we see Mr Thomson being photographed with Minister Albanese at the opening of the troubled GP superclinic. Given the history of the clinic, I am very surprised Minister Albanese was prepared to attend. And then I understand he visited the Shelly Beach and Soldiers Beach Surf Club. Of course this is the surf club that was opened at the height of media interest in Mr Thomson, when he was missing in action. I attended the opening but Mr Thomson was noticeable by his absence. A subsequent event was organised so that Mr Thomson could attend, and low and behold he now appears to be attending a third time to some sort of opening with Minister Albanese. Let us not forget that this is the man who has at this stage had a whole series of findings made against him by Fair Work Australia, a man who is supposedly no longer welcome in the Labor caucus, a man that the Prime Minister has supposedly distanced herself from. Yet here he is proposing amendments to the latest shambolic fishing legislation. Of course, this is all part of the Australian Labor Party still keeping Mr Thomson in the tent. It is also clear that the Australian Labor Party is seeking to delay the preselection in Dobell. My understanding is that the preselection was to have been held in September but that it has now been delayed until next year. And so what we are seeing with Minister Albanese's visit is that the ALP still needs Mr Thomson and his vote. Despite the move to the crossbench, the protection racket is still in operation. One would assume that there would be little chance that Mr Thomson would be re-endorsed—or would he? So I asked myself: what is all this about? Is the ALP stringing Mr Thomson along with the carrot of potentially re-endorsing him at a preselection at some stage in the future? It reminds me of the situation some years ago when Cheryl Kernot was standing in the seat of Dickson and John Faulkner was alleged to have gone up to see Miss Kernot to tell her that the good news was that she was polling really well and she would likely hold Dickson but the bad news was that she was doing so well that there was no more money. And so I say to you, Mr Thomson, do not delude yourself into thinking that the Australian Labor Party will in any way look after you. They will drop you like a hot potato, just like they cut loose Cheryl Kernot and Kevin Rudd. The question that went through my mind seeing the photograph of Minister Albanese and Mr Thomson at the opening of the GP super clinic was: what must Minister Albanese have really been thinking? It is almost a case of, 'Et tu, Brute?' I also understand that that the preferred candidate in Dobell is Councillor Lisa Matthews, who has recently been re-elected to Wyong Shire Council. Might I suggest, Mr Thomson, that you keep a close eye on Councillor Matthews. The ALP, through her, may end up doing the dirty on you. A party that can politically assassinate its Prime Minister in office will have absolutely no hesitation in doing the same to you when they no longer need your vote to hang on to power. Or is there another reason? Are we seeing a replay of what I originally put on the record in August last year when I asserted that the Australian Labor Party had paid the legal expenses of Mr Thomson, which I understood to be a quarter of a million dollars, and that it had been brokered by then Senator Mark Arbib. At no stage—and I have repeated this assertion on a number of occasions—has it ever been denied by Mr Thomson or then Senator Arbib. And so I asked myself the question, remembering that Mr Thomson has twice been forced to disclose the fact that the ALP was paying his legal fees: is the Australian Labor Party, through some backdoor deal, still continuing to pay Mr Thomson's legal expenses because they desperately still need his vote? There may be another reason why the ALP is now engaged in seeking to so comprehensively rehabilitate Mr Thomson. We know that Mr Thomson was paid his legal fees to ensure that he did not go bankrupt and jump ship. But could the ALP be afraid that, if he is not looked after, he may disclose information which could be highly damaging and embarrassing to the party and to individuals? Certainly the ALP has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect Mr Thomson and to ensure that important documents pertaining to his conduct do not see the light of day. Senate adjourned at 23:3 4