HSU secretly paid Craig Thomson $160000 - report - NEWS.com.au

The probe into Labor MP Craig Thomson's previous union dealings has been going on for more than a year. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: The Daily Telegraph

EMBATTLED federal Labor MP Craig Thomson received a secret payment of $160,000 from the Health Services Union (HSU) three years after he had entered Parliament, a report says.

Mr Thomson left the union in 2007 when he became the member for the New South Wales?Central Coast seat of Dobell.

But Fairfax Media has obtained documents showing that in September 2010, the HSU agreed to pay him $129,555 in entitlements plus $30,000 to settle a defamation claim he had brought against the union and his successor as national secretary, Kathy Jackson.

At the time of the payout, Mr Thomson was suing Fairfax Media over the allegations and had been recently re-elected as a federal MP.

Subsequently, the NSW branch of the Labor Party paid $150,000 in Mr Thomson's legal bills to prevent him becoming a bankrupt, which would have excluded him from office and caused the collapse of the minority government.

Former and current HSU officials - including Mr Thomson - are the subject of two Fair Work Australia (FWA) investigations, police probes in NSW and Victoria and an internal inquiry by former corruption buster Ian Temby QC.

The report is understood to deal with financial mismanagement of the HSU when Mr Thomson was national secretary, including alleged credit card misuse by him.

Mr Thomson, who denies any wrongdoing during his time with the union from 2002 to 2007, has declined to cooperate with the Victorian police investigation on legal advice.

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