A meeting convened at Parliament House of all Labor staff, where Bronwyn Taylor, Chief of Staff to Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek, spoke about a new addition to Bill Shorten’s office – one Matt Burke – who would assist with Labor’s federal election campaign. A few of those advisers with long memories were rather surprised that the leader’s office would employ Burke, a former associate of dodgy Health Services Union Secretary turned Labor MP Craig Thomson. Thomson employed Burke at the HSU without the authorisation of the union’s National Executive. Then Burke resigned in April 2007 to run Thomson’s campaign as Labor candidate for the federal seat of Dobell. Despite his resignation, Burke continued to use his HSU-issued credit card for the rest of the year, racking up $6700 in the lead-up to the November election. Thomson also paid Burke’s car insurance on his HSU credit card in November, seven months after Burke had left the union. All of these revelations are contained in Fair Work Australia’s investigation into the HSU’s national office following allegations of financial impropriety by Thomson and National President Michael Williamson, who is serving a five-year prison sentence. The report was compiled by Fair Work Australia investigator Terry Nassios and was released in March 2012.
