Former Labor MP Craig Thomson faces a reprimand but no other penalty over a 2012 speech in which he was accused of deliberately misleading parliament. The parliament’s privileges committee on Thursday released its report into the matter after a two-year inquiry into the former Health Services Union secretary. “The committee considers that an appropriate penalty would be for the House to reprimand Mr Thomson for his conduct,” committee chairman Russell Broadbent told parliament. The committee acknowledged Mr Thomson’s “difficult personal situation” since the allegations about him first arose in the context of the HSU exit audit in 2007-8 and led to a series of investigations, reports and court cases. “In recommending punishment, the committee considers these difficulties to be a mitigating factor in what it now recommends,” the report said, rejecting a finding of contempt which could have involved a fine or jail. In a response to the report, Mr Thomson offered an apology “for pointing out that Michael Williamson, Kathy Jackson and her partner Mr Lawler, and Marco Bolano were all likely to be crooks”.
