The Health Services Union is under fire for planning to buy a new head office in Carlton for $1.3 million. Senior HSU sources have described the decision as “an indulgent waste of members’ money”, saying the union’s financials were already stretched. It comes as the union prepares to hand down findings of an investigation into national secretary Chris Brown’s credit card expenses, after it was revealed he spent $73,000 in less than three years. Mr Brown recommended the HSU buy the 200 sq m suiteand the union’s national executive needed to approve it on Friday. A senior union source said the national branch did not need the office as it offered no services to members. “Things are on a knife’s edge as it is,” the source said. “Why take out a massive loan and pay thousands of dollars of interest on that loan? It’s not like the national office does anything anyway. Its meets once a month and that’s basically it. The national office services no members and has no income stream outside of capitation fees. It’s ironic that union capitation fees could see the decapitation of our union.”
