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May 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Health Services Union (HSU) acting president Chris Brown says Fair Work Australia’s findings have confirmed what many officials knew of the problems in the union before 2008.
FWA general manager Bernadette O’Neill said on Monday she would be briefing lawyers about taking 181 contraventions of workplace laws and union rules to the Federal Court following an investigation into the “misuse” of members’ funds by former and current HSU officials.
Ms O’Neill said the bulk of the contraventions related to a former official – whom she did not name for legal reasons – and included “substantial funds” being spent inappropriately on escorts, travel and hospitality.
Former HSU general secretary from 2002 to 2007 and now federal MP Craig Thomson – who has stood aside from the Labor caucus to sit as an independent – denied any wrongdoing on Monday and challenged the fairness and legality of the FWA investigation.
Mr Brown said the report confirmed the concerns of many union officials.
“(It comes as no surprise to) those of us in 2008 that uncovered what we thought were extraordinary irregularities in the finances, including significant cash withdrawals from ATMs without any accounts, expenditures for adult services, expenditures spent on spouse travel and so on,” Mr Brown told ABC television on Monday.
“But more importantly it means that people can be held to account.”
While FWA did not recommend any criminal action, each of the civil penalties carried a fine of up to $2200, Mr Brown said.
“Potentially there’s more than $200,000 of fines involved in all this.”
Mr Brown, whose union has been cooperating with NSW and Victorian police investigations, said Victorian police were “still actively investigating the period that Craig Thomson was the national secretary between 2002 and 2007”.
He expected an outcome from that investigation, which was “progressing very well”, by mid-2012.
Mr Thomson says he will vigorously defend all claims against him in court.
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