I want to make one clear point about Thomson.
The delays, the costs, the false denials, the false accusations blaming others, the huge legal bills, the costs to the state in its lengthy investigations, the consumption of scarce expert police resources, the damage to our parliament and its members' standing - all of that can be put down to one person.
Craig Thomson.
He did it. He covered it up. He caused the delays. He made the state expend millions in its investigations and prosecutions. He was not cleared of doing what he was charged with doing, rather as Sky News reported on Monday:
Victorian County Court Judge Carolyn Douglas said it was regrettable that she could not convict Thomson on the charges because he had clearly misused the Health Services Union's funds.
But she said the prosecution had not made out the charges in the way they were presented to the court.
'Clearly the applicant had deceived his employer, the Health Services, but that is not said to be the deception,' she said on Monday.
'This is a court of law, not a court of morals.'
Her Honour made it clear she did not condone his behaviour, behaviour he now admits to. It wasn't Bolano setting him up. It wasn't done by someone else. He did it.
Last week Victoria's Supreme Court sentenced a crooked lawyer to 12 years gaol for fraud offences. The Chief Judge made the following comments lawyers who are:
....held in a position of trust by their clients. You betrayed that trust.....
the community must be aware that this type of gross misconduct will result in very serious punishment.
a key consideration in arriving at an appropriate sentence is the matter of general deterrence with denunciation and community protection.
Thomson was a lawyer as well. But beside being a laywer, he had an even higher responsibility. He was the boss of a trade union that said it stood up for the rights of working men and women. In Thomson's case, it was 60,000 of the nation's lowest paid workers. And he routinely and methodically ripped them off, in the words of the Prosecutor Lesley Taylor SC
“He treated the funds as his own,” she said.
“It’s breathtaking, his lack of insight and his inability to recognise that he has done anything wrong.
“The breach of trust is enormous.”
He cost all of us those millions. He stole from the members he was employed to protect. He lied about it and blamed another man for doing it.
Thomson, lawyer, former Federal Parliamentarian and head of the Health Services Union's sentence is a travesty of justice.
It must be appealed. To do less would be to invite more Craig Thomsons into our lives.
