Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 18 September, I raised the government's continued hiding of important documents pertaining to the member for Dobell. Tonight I would like to outline the depths to which this government is descending to protect the member for Dobell. Over a year ago, I sought documents under freedom of information regarding the proposed $2.7 million jobs incubator promised at the last election which was to be established as a partnership between the Wyong Shire Council and Central Coast Group Training. The documents I wanted contain representations made by Mr Thomson to ministers regarding this process and especially his efforts to undermine the project for his own vindictive motives.

Despite repeated questioning of Minister Carr and a failed order for production of documents when Labor and their Green alliance partners shut down the debate and despite continued challenges by me to the blocking of access to these documents by DEEWR, the Gillard Labor government went to great lengths to refuse me access to these documents.

As I indicated on 18 September, I was provided with a series of documents by Wyong Shire Council. One of the documents is a letter from the member for Dobell to Minister Garrett dated 20 July 2011. This letter makes it clear that Mr Thomson was deliberately seeking to besmirch the name of then Mayor Eaton and Councillor Best. This letter can in no way be described as the usual communications that occur between local members of parliament and ministers in regard to progress on projects in electorates, which is what Minister Carr told the Senate. Let me read the letter to which this government has gone to great lengths to protect from release. The letter is dated Wednesday 20 July 2011 and it is from Mr Thomson to the Hon. Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth:

Dear Minister,

I am writing to ask that you undertake an inquiry into whether the Mayor of Wyong Doug Eaton and Councillor Greg Best misrepresented themselves to your department over a funding application by Wyong Shire council.

Mayor Doug Eaton is Chairman of Central Coast Group Training. Councillor Greg Best is the CEO of Central Coast Group Training which is a not for profit Group Training Company operating out of Tuggerah in my Electorate of Dobell.

Prior to the 2010 election Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Wyong Shire Council in partnership with Central Coast Group Training was to receive funding to establish a Jobs Skills Incubator in Wyong Township on property owned by Wyong Shire Council.

Since that time my office has been dealing with staff of Wyong Shire Council on the progress of their application. I became concerned when it became apparent that Council Staff were not aware of the progress of the application. Subsequently I became aware that Councillors Eaton and Best had met with officers of your department to discuss the progress of the application without the knowledge of relevant staff in Wyong Shire Council.

It appears that when Councillors Best and Eaton met with officers of your department the impression was given that Mayor Eaton was representing Wyong Shire Council and Councillor Best was representing Central Coast Group Training as the original partners in the application. They discussed with your department alternative funding for their preferred project. Council officers dealing with the application only became aware of this visit when they were informed by my office.

The facts are that Council and the CCGT are in disagreement about the model for the Skills Centre. The Mayor did not represent his Council's preferred position on the model for the Skills Centre.

As you know I have been a strong advocate for programs to deal with the issues of unemployment and disadvantage in my electorate. I work closely with many organisations across the Central Coast to look at ways in which we can improve education and the skills levels of job seekers especially young people. Wyong is a particularly disadvantaged area with high unemployment and high social disadvantage. It is essential to ensure that we support programs which directly address these issues.

I am writing to the General Manager of Wyong Shire Council and all Councillors to request that they conduct their own inquiry into this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Craig Thomson MP

Member for Dobell

Mr Acting Deputy President, I seek leave to table a copy of that letter.

Leave granted.

Despite all the protestations, it is noteworthy that, after all the trials and tribulations of this matter, when it came before Wyong Shire Council on 10 October 2012 the motion was passed to proceed with the jobs incubator in accordance with the very same joint partnership framework between the council and Central Coast Group Training that made up the original parameters of the announcement. Two years on, the council and CCGT are back to where they started and the young people of the Central Coast still do not have their jobs incubator. So why don't you explain that, Mr Thomson, and why your interference in this process, both at the departmental level and at the council level, has resulted in this lengthy delay where potentially hundreds of hours of training for young people have been lost? Central Coast Group Training have lost hundreds of hours pursuing this matter. You have sought to besmirch their reputation—

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Fierravanti-Wells, I remind you to address your remarks through the chair.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Many young people have potentially missed out on jobs and here we are, back to where we started from. Can I say that the member for Dobell has deliberately and in a calculated manner set out to sabotage this jobs incubator.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Fierravanti-Wells, I remind you of standing order 193 and the requirement not to impute improper motives against a member of the other place.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. It is clear from the various documents that I have referred to in the past that Mr Thomson appears to have had a personal vendetta against both then Mayor Eaton and Councillor Greg Best. I would remind the Senate that Mr Thomson sought to pressure CCGT to give his former wife a job back in March 2011. When this did not happen and after Councillor Best had gone on the local radio to criticise the Gillard government for its failure to deliver on its promised GP superclinic, Mr Thomson retaliated on 15 July 2011 with the text message threat of, 'Bye, bye, jobs incubator.'

Let us look at and note the terms of the council's decision. As I said, they now wish to proceed. There is now a concern about whether the Gillard Labor government will still make available that $2.8 million funding, and I call on the government to confirm that that funding is still available. Obviously it has now become a lot more urgent, and I am not surprised because of the high levels of youth unemployment in this area. But isn't it interesting—there were six councillors who voted for the motion and, lo and behold, who voted against the motion but the ALP councillors? The ALP councillors voted against the motion. Right until the end, they were doing Mr Thomson's dirty work in council.

I now turn to another matter. Since May this year, I have been seeking the public release of attachments to the Fair Work Australia report into the Health Services Union and Mr Thomson. Those documents are referred to in the report and there are actually eight, not seven, lever-arch folders of documents, as the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has refused to release publicly. I note the early morning raid on Mr Thomson's home last week. Given matters on foot with the New South Wales and Victorian police, we await the outcome of those matters. It is now more likely that the ALP will do everything possible to make sure that those documents are not released and therefore not scrutinised publicly, as they should be. I will stop here as I am precluded from disclosing what I have read.

Given that Fair Work Australia is now pursuing these matters in the Federal Court, and in light of what I have seen and read, I am amazed that Mr Thomson continues to profess his innocence. Under further scrutiny, the documents could, for example, shed light on the nature of each individual misuse of funds and whether Mr Thomson was alone or in the company of other union or ALP luminaries when the misuse occurred.

This brings me to Mr Thomson's legal costs. In speeches last year I repeatedly referred to the quarter of a million dollars paid by the ALP for his costs and the circumstances surrounding that. My assertions were never denied by any person opposite, by former Senator Arbib, who is alleged to have brokered that deal, nor by any other ALP figure.

I turn to who is paying Mr Thomson's legal fees now. We know that Mr Thomson twice failed to properly disclose interests in his register of interests, including in relation to his legal fees. His letter was carefully couched and only referred to a 'sum of money' being paid. He also states that he has an open account with Kalantzis Lawyers. His register of interest discloses that he has no interest in real estate and that his home at Bateau Bay is owned by his wife, although he also discloses that both he and his wife have a mortgage with SGE Credit Union.

So how is Mr Thomson paying for his legal fees? As a former litigation lawyer, I understand well that litigation is not cheap. Who is paying for Mr McArdle? Do his fees include the growing media appearances he is making, while taking the opportunity to attack Mr Abbott? Mr McArdle, the principal of McArdle Legal, appears to be the new lawyer. His website describes himself as:

… one of approximately forty lawyers in New South Wales accredited by the Law Society of New South Wales as a specialist in Employment and Industrial Law. Chris has been in legal practice since 1988 and prior to that, served as a Commissioner of the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales.

I am sure he doesn't come cheap, despite Steve Lewis, in his article on 26 October, describing Mr McArdle as having:

… a long pedigree with the labour movement, starting his working life as federal industrial organiser with the Australian Workers Union in the 1970s.

The question that needs to be answered is whether the ALP is still paying for Mr Thomson's legal fees in some backdoor way. Is there some arrangement with Mr McArdle that should be properly disclosed?

On the last occasion I referred to the rehabilitation of Mr Thomson and the increased presence of ministers visiting Dobell. I note that the ALP has deferred pre-selection in Dobell. Indeed, I understand that Mr Thomson is interested in standing for ALP pre-selection and has apparently told people in the ALP that he wants to run. I understand that this is the reason it has been left open. How else can one account for this sudden interest in high-profile ALP visits to Dobell to support a man who has had a whole series of findings made against him by Fair Work Australia which are now the subject of Federal Court proceedings; who is supposedly no longer welcome in the ALP caucus; whom the Prime Minister has supposedly distanced herself from; and who is the subject of investigations by both the NSW and Victorian police?

Is this just part of the plan to keep him in the tent or does Mr Thomson think he can ride out the storm and stand for pre-selection again next year? Given this man's history to date, I would call on the ALP to rule out ever pre-selecting Mr Thomson. Or is that Mr Thomson knows more than he is publically disclosing—that the protection racket is working both ways? 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? Only time will tell, but it is getting, in the words of Alice in Wonderland, 'curiouser and curiouser'.