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September 16th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MARK COLVIN: The controversy-dogged Health Services Union is to sever its formal connection to the Labor Party. The HSU is disaffiliating from the New South Wales, Victorian and ACT branches of the ALP.
There are accusations against the former union head – now Labor MP – Craig Thomson and the union’s national president Michael Williamson, who’s also a vice president of the ALP, of misusing union funds and taking secret commissions. Both have denied all the allegations.
The union’s council made the decision this morning. One Federal MP told PM it was the smartest thing the union had done, and it had done the right thing by the ALP.
But divisions in the HSU have resurfaced, after its council set up a team of three senior officials to keep members informed of the NSW Police probe’s progress and make public comments about the investigation.
The HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson has objected to that, and she told Alexandra Kirk the union was trying to limit the fallout for Labor and the Prime Minister, but regarded it as a futile attempt.
KATHY JACKSON: Well, I’ve not even turned my mind to that, but that’s what the council want to do, I have no issue with that. Whether we’re members of the Labor Party or not, is not a material… I’ve not even thought about it. But if the council has decided to disaffiliate, I have no issue with that.
The issue I have is, if they are to re-affiliate, there has to be a ballot of every member of this union, of the branch – the HSU East – to re-affiliate, and not to use the ALP as a political football within the HSU.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The disaffiliation – was that a unanimous decision?
KATHY JACKSON: Yes it was.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: So you agreed with it.
KATHY JACKSON: I agreed we should disaffiliate. What I didn’t agree with is that they weren’t prepared to add into the motion that to re-affiliate, that there must be a full vote of the membership. That’s what I was seeking. It won’t be something done behind closed doors.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Do you believe that the union is trying to limit damage to the Federal Labor Party and the Prime Minister by disaffiliating?
KATHY JACKSON: Yes, I do believe that.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Opposition has dismissed the disaffiliation move as a transparent attempt by the union to shield the Labor Party from collateral damage, which the Opposition says won’t wash with the public. Do you believe it is a futile gesture on that?
KATHY JACKSON: I think it is a futile gesture because, if they were fair dinkum about it, they would have agreed that to re-affiliate, there has to be a full vote of the membership. I agree with that statement. I don’t want this union, ever to be used, ever again, to be used by either party as a political football.
We’re an industrial organisation. Let’s not forget that. We’re a union that is here to look after the interests of its members, not here to look after who gets pre-selected to seat x, y and z. It’s not about factions. You know, it’s not about anything like that.
This is about making sure that we’re not compromising any police investigation that is, Strike Force Carnarvon has been set up, but at the same time, as an organisation we want to make sure that what we’re doing internally is the right thing by membership. And what I say, quite clearly and loudly to everybody, is that a representative body – with the majority of the general secretary supporters – does not do that.
MARK COLVIN: The Health Services Union national secretary Kathy Jackson, talking to Alexandra Kirk.
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