Former Health Services Union (HSU) boss Kathy Jackson has appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, to face 70 charges of theft and deception. Jackson was charged last month following a royal commission investigation into union corruption. Last year the Federal Court ordered Jackson to pay $1.4 million to her former employer, the HSU. In court yesterday her lawyer Philip Beazley asked for more time to look through the brief of evidence, which was 5,000 pages long. The court documents revealed Ms Jackson is accused of stealing more than $270,000 from the HSU. She is alleged to have spent another $100,000 on travel, including trips to Hong Kong, Los Angeles and a stay at the luxury Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. According to the documents, more than $110,000 was spent on reimbursements, including an alleged one-off HSU payment of $63,000, which was described as an “honorarium entitlement”. The documents also allege she spent more than $570 on flowers, $1,800 on posters and more than $1,000 for a treadmill. Jackson was granted bail on the condition she surrender her passport and not leave Australia.
