Temby report exposes ill health of HSU


Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 24/07/2012

Reporter: Hayden Cooper

Ian Temby's report in to the Health Services Union catalogues what was going on inside the troubled union and where its money was going.


LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The political train wreck that is the Health Services Union is back to plague the Gillard Government once more. An audit has slammed the former union boss, Michael Williamson, for misspending millions of dollars. The Prime Minister says it vindicates her move to place the union in administration. But that's now under threat as Hayden Cooper reports.

HAYDEN COOPER, REPORTER: This is an attempt at damage control. An in-house video produced last year by HSU East and its beleaguered boss.

[Excerpt from HSU East promo video]
PRESENTER: Michael, there's been some media articles suggesting the union is in crisis, that's far from the truth?

MICHAEL WILLIAMSON, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, HSU: It's a long way off reality. The practical situation is that the union is in a fine position, you know. When you look at that in the last week our membership has increased by over about 150 members, that's not reflective of the union in crisis. It's moving forward and we're in good shape.
[End of excerpt]

HAYDEN COOPER: That was then - but now, in 100 pages, Michael Williamson's record in charge of this union has been laid bare. And the news travelled fast to the very top.

JULIA GILLARD: I've seen those reports. It's clear that there have been real problems at the Health Services Union and that's distressing, I think, to everyone who cares about working people getting decent representation from their trade union.

BILL SHORTEN, WORK RELATIONS MINISTER: On behalf of the Gillard Government, we want to say that the Temby report demonstrates the deplorable state of affairs which has occurred in one part of the Health Services Union.

HAYDEN COOPER: Ian Temby's report takes a close look at spending at the union during the Williamson reign. It follows the money. Michael Williamson's union salary was almost $400,000. $4.6 million of union funds went to a company he part-owns, United Edge. $3.4 million went to Mah-Chut Architects, who also worked on Mr Williamson's personal home. $3 million went to a printing firm which had allegedly given a credit card to the union boss. And almost $400,000 was paid to Mr Williamson's wife for archiving union documents.

Ian Temby finds that many of the contracts didn't even go to tender. For HSU officials still around, it's galling.

CHRIS BROWN, ACTING NATIONAL PRESIDENT, HSU: There is not another union in this country that would be paying people even close to that. In fact nowhere near that. And there's just no justification whatsoever for union officials being paid those sorts of sums of money, and I've described it in the past as being obscene - and obscene is what it is.

HAYDEN COOPER: And so the backdrop was set for the latest chapter of the union struggle in the courts and today's effort by Kathy Jackson to overturn the appointment of an administrator. That move put her and all other elected union officials out of a job. A hearing will be brought on in coming weeks.

KATHY JACKSON, NATIONAL SECRETARY, HSU: Why I'm appealing, there's a whole range of people who have done the right thing: myself, Marco Bolano, Councillor Ted Hughes from NSW, and all Victorian councillors at every point tried to sort this out and solve the problems within the HSU and we were stopped at every step of the way by Michael Williamson and his cronies.

HAYDEN COOPER: In the meantime the administrator is going about his duties at HSU East headquarters, which begs the question: just what will he do with the Temby report?

CHRIS BROWN: My guess is that he will do three things. One is that he will use it to guide him in strengthening the governance procedures within that branch to put in place mechanisms to prevent this from happening again in the future. Secondly, he has the option of actually pursuing recovery of some of the funds if they have deemed to be misappropriated - in fact he has an obligation under the court order to do that. And my guess is that he would be looking at that very carefully. And the third option that he's got, if if he hasn't already done it, is to refer the report to the NSW police so that it can be investigated as part of the criminal investigation that they have underway at the moment.

HAYDEN COOPER: Within the national union, the knives are well and cruel out for the former HSU East boss. The next step may be new efforts to remove him from the national role he still technically owns: HSU president.

CHRIS BROWN: Well he still holds the position and no, he shouldn't. Look, essentially under the rules he can be charged with gross misconduct and removed from office. Up until now all there's been is accusations; there's been no objective finding that has pointed to that. Now that we do have the final Temby report, then it may well be that there is evidence in that that would warrant him being removed from that position as national president.

HAYDEN COOPER: The thousands of members of this union will soon have their say on all of this when fresh elections are held. But even then, warring factions blame each other for seeking to cling to power. And there's one move of note: Kathy Jackson has left Melbourne behind and now calls NSW home - the state with the largest membership.

CHRIS BROWN: There's no doubt that that is what she's trying to do is gain control of those three branches; and because of the sheer size of those three branches, you gain control of those then you also gain control of the national union and therefore the whole of the organisation.

HAYDEN COOPER: Why have you moved to NSW?

KATHY JACKSON: I've moved to NSW because my partner's originally from Sydney and our plan was always to move back here so he could be closer to his children.

HAYDEN COOPER: Does it have anything to do with the elections? Nothing at all? Isn't it about shoring up your power base in this state?

HAYDEN COOPER: No, no. I could have stayed in Victoria and had a power base there.

KATHY JACKSON: But your critics, no doubt, would say this is about Kathy Jackson finally moving to take control of the new HSU.

HAYDEN COOPER: Well, it's nonsense. It's not about that.

LEIGH SALES: Hayden Cooper asking the questions there.