Disgraced ex-Labor MP Craig Thomson will lose more than $100 a week from his modest income as a consultant after the Federal Court quarantined the money to pay his outstanding fine for misusing union funds. Thomson has refused to pay the Fair Work Commission any of the $175,550 as ordered in 2015 by judge Christopher Jessup, who found the former Health Services Union national secretary had used more than $300,000 of HSU funds to pay for prostitutes and his election campaign for the seat of Dobell. The industrial watchdog took Thomson back to court this month to seek a formal earnings order withholding a proportion of his wages for the outstanding fine. Though Thomson did not appear, Federal Court registrar David Ryan ordered his wife’s company — the Wickerman Group, which employs the former MP as a consultant — to pay the FWC $208.88 a fortnight from his wages, or $5408 a year, as long as Thomson continued to earn more than $839.12 per fortnight. Under this arrangement, it will take more than 32 years for the penalty to be repaid. The former union boss has also flouted orders to pay the HSU $231,243.42 in compensation and $146,937 interest, raising the prospect that the union may take similar action to ensure payment as it has previously flagged.
