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May 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda By a staff reporter, with AAP
If embattled MP Craig Thomson had hoped that his hour-long statement to parliament on Monday would quell the controversy surrounding allegations contained in a Fair Work Australia report, he may, based on the response so far from opposition members and HSU-connected officials, be disappointed.
In an address to parliament on allegations contained in a Fair Work Australia report, Mr Thomson alleged that Health Services Union (HSU) deputy general secretary Marco Bolano had threatened to ruin any political career Mr Thomson was planning during his time with the union and promised to “set him up” with prostitutes.
He said that he was threatened often at the HSU, and that he had “many enemies” when he was in charge of the union.
“There was, though, a particular threat that was made that I thought was just part of the routine threats that were constantly made in working in this environment,” Mr Thomson said.
“That was a threat by Marco Bolano, that, words to the effect, that he would seek to ruin any political career that I sought and would set me up with a bunch of hookers,” he said.
In his speech to parliament, Mr Thomson accused Fair Work Australia of being biased in its investigation of claims he misused an employer-provided credit card. He said officials at the HSU had been angry about his push to clean up the union’s lack of transparency after he became its national secretary in 2002.
The Coalition has come out hard against Mr Thomson, using the scandal as part of an effort to further weaken Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government.
Following Mr Thomson’s speech, the opposition said it will forensically examine cross-bench MP Craig Thomson’s statement to parliament before initiating any move to suspend him.
Christopher Pyne, leader of opposition business in the lower house, says the coalition will spend the next day or two comparing and contrasting Mr Thomson’s speech with the Fair Work Australia report on him and media interviews.
The former Labor MP faced a “believability test”, Mr Pyne said on Monday.
“If it emerges that (Mr Thomson’s statement) is not a complete telling of the truth, or in fact the unbelievability of it suggests he has misled the parliament, then of course the opposition will take appropriate action,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“One of those would be to suspend him. Another would be to refer that alleged misleading of parliament to the privileges committee.”
Mr Thomson’s membership in the Labor Party has been suspended, but he continues to support Labor in parliament, allowing the party to maintain its one-seat majority. Labor paid Mr Thomson’s legal bills.
However, if it is proven that any of the allegations Mr Thomson made in his speech Monday are untrue, he could face action by parliament, including suspension.
The opposition wants Mr Thomson to be investigated by Parliament’s Privileges Committee for allegedly failing to declare the sale of two properties, one in Melbourne and one on the NSW central coast, and his legal assistance, on a register of MPs’ financial interests, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Labor’s Anthony Albanese on Monday night accused the opposition of seeking to create “chaos for chaos’s sake”, according to The Australian.
The Australian reported that Labor is considering raising spending concerns about a Coalition MP as part of an effort to deflect attention from the Thomson scandal.
Several crossbench MPs have backed Labor, saying parliament could turn into a “kangaroo court” as part of an effort to convict Thomson, suggesting that any Coalition effort to suspend Thomson could lack sufficient support.
Mr Thomson told parliament the threat from Mr Bolano started in the office of his successor, Kathy Jackson.
“The rant went right down the corridor, was witnessed by many people, then was also the subject of a report, a letter was written to the Jacksons and to (HSU National President) Michael Williamson complaining about this incident and putting, very importantly, this instance on record,” he said.
Mr Thomson said some years later Mr Williamson said in front of a number of witnesses: “This is the way we deal with people in the Health Services Union when we have problems.”
Mr Bolano has hit out hard at the claims, telling media in a statement that the MP was drowning in a river of delusion.
He accused Mr Thomson of abusing parliamentary privilege and described his claims as “fantastic and dishonest”.
“Any suggestion that I conspired to `set up’ Mr Thomson, as he has claimed from behind the protection of parliamentary privilege, is utterly false and an abuse of his parliamentary privileges,” Mr Bolano said
Ms Jackson claims she is “gobsmacked” by Mr Thomson’s address to parliament, and that she didn’t address the issue of missing union funds.
She said Mr Thomson used his speech as a smokescreen to divert attention away from the findings of the FWA investigation.
“I can’t believe how pathetic he is,” Ms Jackson told Macquarie Radio.
The replies come as the federal opposition opens a new front against Mr Thomson, asking parliament’s privileges committee to deal with him “sternly”.
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