The woman whom Tony Abbott thinks is so admirable and heroic has had a rapid fall from grace.
However Abbott must not be alone is his disappointment, there is a long list of Liberal Party figures that have sung Kathy Jackson’s praises for years and now find themselves with the same sudden amnesia that Jackson is suffering from on the Royal Commission stand.
Then there’s Christopher Pyne, George Brandis, Eric Abetz, former Liberal MP’s like Peter Reith, right-wing commentators like Andrew Bolt, Piers Ackerman, Miranda Devine, Ray Hadley, Chris Smith, Paul Murray and a host of others.
Plus of course there is the last man standing, Michael Smith who has done himself a huge disservice for what fellow right-wing blogger describes as
“privately defending the indefensible.”
So what is the indefensible?
When Jackson appeared before the Royal Commission in June the indefensible appeared to be the $1 Million in spending on credit cards with no accountability.
When Jackson took the witness stand the indefensible became the $250,000 she was able to spend as she desired that came from Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute at the expense of workers who were owed benefits.
See, way yonder over there Kathy you can make out the backs of your former supporters as they flee…
However in reality the indefensible is a great deal more than that. A great deal more indeed.
Below is what I have added up that I have a record of or what has been made public knowledge in the press.
| Questionable Expense | Amount |
| Unsubstantiated credit card expenditure | $1,027,456.00 |
| NHDA Slush Fund | $280,000.00 |
| Missing money from Volvo Purchase | $5,005.00 |
| Neranto #10 Payments that are known | $14,159.00 |
| Koukouvaos Consulting Payments | $4,860.00 |
| Cash Cheques from a less than 1 year period | $80,004.00 |
| Payment to a” Lawler” 27/01/2010 | $1,327.00 |
| 27/10/2009 Expenses payment | $13,556.00 |
| 22/4/2010 Payment listed as F004220621034 4 | $70,000.00 |
| 22/6/2010 Payment listed as “creditors” | $50,293.00 |
| Payment to Jeff Jackson | $58,000.00 |
| Payment to Wai Quen that went to someone else | $22,000.00 |
| Child Care | $6,165.00 |
| Strange postage payment | $12,500.00 |
| 2005 Ski Trip | $22,001.00 |
| Camera equipment | $3,934.00 |
| Cash withdrawals shown on assoted BAS Reports | $29,220.00 |
| Honaraium Payment | $63,000.00 |
| TOTAL | $1,763,480.00 |
This link below shows comments on some of these figures.
Questionable Jackson Expenditure
Well over $1.76 Million worth of indefensibility.
However there are some things to note with this figure.
Firstly a large chunk of this is the $1 Million spent on credit cards over approximately 14 years. Some of this will of course be legitimate union spending so the figure would drop substantially so without details of expenditure which has disappeared into a void somewhere we have only current union spending to compare it to.
Current spending on credit cards at the union is approximately $1,000 per month according to financial records or $12,000 a year. Over 14 years at current spending rates that could mean that around $168,000 was spent on legitimate union business, which still leave just under $1 Million looking questionable.
At rate of expenditure the current management of Jackson’s union branch would have to run the union for 85.5 years to spend what Jackson did in 14 on credit cards.
Despite the Credit Card figure dropping, there are also things to bear in mind that would see this figure skyrocket.
Firstly, these are only based on the documentation that I have. The documentation I have represents only a fraction of the financial material that would be available were it not for the great flood of convenience. Even Jackson herself has highlighted that I only have a small part of what should be out there when she claimed in her witness statement that I had
“very low level accounting records”
In my evidence I only have one year’s worth of statements from the union branch cheque account of the approximately 14 years Jackson was secretary, less than 10%.
I’m going home to watch “What really happens in Bali”
I have also not included all of the spending at liquor stores that there is records of, nor the spending at supermarkets as frankly there was so much I couldn’t be bothered adding it all up.
The NHDA figure is also a figure that could climb. Without all of the bank records that show transfers into Jacksons NHDA account it is impossible to know how much actually went into the account. BCOM minutes the Royal Commission had allegedly show that up to $90,000 per year was to be transferred into the account from members funds, although we don’t know how much actually went in.
Counsel Assisting Jeremy Stoljar asked Jackson when she was under oath about this. Stoljar estimated that it could have been over $400,000 in total in the NHDA account by his calculations and asked Jackson if she had expected this to be the case to which she responded “Yes”.
I am also unsure as to whether or not there were any further payments made to Jacksons companies Koukouvaos Consulting or Neranto #10, although I have suspicions there may have been.
I also assume given Jacksons testimony in the Craig Thomson trial that there would have been a great deal more in child care costs, which if we look back at old interviews are one of many things Jackson once denied and now admits.
Also interesting to note is that the $58,000 payment to Jeff Jackson is in addition to the $50,000 payment being talked about in the media that came from the NHDA account.
However there is something else that is even more important to remember with this conservative figure of $1.76 Million.
Those whom Jackson has painted as the bad guys were Williamson and Thomson while painting herself as a heroic whistleblower.
Michael Williamson is serving 5 years in prison for approximately $1 Million of funds that was fraudulently taken from members funds. That is just over half of conservative estimate that Kathy is facing scrutiny on.
Craig Thomson whose sentence is under appeal was found guilty of less than $28,000 worth of what was deemed inappropriate spending.
For this amount that right-wing blogger Larry Pickering describes as “no more than petty cash” Jackson has spent 2 years waging war on Thomson in the press.
Not only that, it seems almost perverse that Kathy Jackson should be stalking Thomson throughout his court proceedings in a bid to put herself in front of the camera’s she so fears now.
The same can be said for Marco Bolano who spent his days on compensation shadowing Thomson at court appearances, one of Bolano’s girlfriend picketed outside with some cronies so she could scream and wave placards at Thomson as he emerged from court.
This behaviour now appears to have all of the taste and decorum of a Westboro Baptist Picket line outside a funeral home.
Clearly $1.76 Million doesn’t buy one a sense of shame.
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Well done
Try as I might I can’t figure out how she could be so brazen as to dob in Craig Thomson for (possibly) doing in a small way what she was going her hardest at. And lying her head off every time she opened her mouth in public. She must have had 100 per cent confidence that people in the right places would lie and cover for her. And if it hadn’t been for you, Peter, she just might have got away with it.
To me it feels very strange that I do not have a skerrick of sympathy for Kathy when I can usually muster up a bit of sympathy for most people. I even felt sorry for Peter Slipper over the injustice he has been subjected to even though I loathed his politics.
Kathy is in a league all of her own. She forgot to read the whistleblowers hand book that stated before you cast accusations you must have a clean house.
Her house is the dirtiest of them all and if Williamson is rightly in prison for stealing $1 million she ought to get 10.
Good on you, she gave all the hard working union members such a bad name!
The Liberal Dirt unit ,Got caught out ,as they have with ICAC in NSW !! What we are seeing is Abbotts face less men , The IPA ,Minerals Council ,NFA ,& others !! Well it,s back fired ,Slipper was set up by these scroundrels ,I,m convinced !!
Not sure what Thomson was convicted for. Whatever it was, spread over many rears. Confused about the brothel charges, as I thought they were dropped. Maybe it will be clearer hen the appeals begin. Maybe Thomson will then challenge the allegations.
The allegations that Slipper was convicted of, had nothing t do with the Ashby affair. A judge found that a conspiracy to bring down a legit speaker of the lower house occurred. That still his not been addressed. IMHO, more grievous and important, than either Slipper or Thomson have been convicted of.
As bad as some might think, what Slipper did is no worse than many other MPs have recently done.
Seems GPS showed that Slipper was near where a wine tasting occurred, then he must have attended the wine tasting. One does not have to prove themselves innocence in this country., Well at least, not until Brandis gets his latest legalisation through.
We now have Brandis sending out memos to all departments and such places as universities, wanting all contact Gillard or others in the Labor government, had with unions over the last decade. They are directed to pads the information onto the RC. I believe this action is outside the ability of the RC to ask for. Definitely not the role of Brandis.
and while we’re at let us not forget the rotten way pauline hanson was decimated because she had too much public support
This drama is going to pull in lots of so far unnamed persons who benefited from KJ cash grants. I suspect [REPEAT SUSPECT] the beneficiaries were not only KJ and ex hubby but also other union / ALP functionaries receiving cash grants for internal union and ALP ballots. Hold onto your hat, its going to be a rough ride with lots of unexpected collateral damage. The important question is not only where did the money come from? We all know the answer to that. But importantly where did much of it go to? Who really benefited? Counsel Assisting will certainly be putting well researched questions about this when KJ is next examined, unless she suddenly gets sick.
I visited Michael Smiths page last night and was taken a back by the attempts to defend and justify Jacksons actions….I understand his statement about not leaving a sinking ship, as Jackson is his friend, fair enough that’s a good friend, however the rest of the drivel, left me shaking my head, that a pretty huge dose of loyalty that he is blindly believing her and paying no heed to the evidence. I must ask where is her husband at the moment, one would expect this form of loyalty from the man who holds her heart ………
Maybe time to put the ex husband, Mr. Jackson on the stand.
Florence seems it shows who is trying to pull the strings in the RC witch hunt!!
However Counsel assisting seems to have changed direction and having second thoughts about Ms Jackson
In her evidence given on 19 June (page 864 of the transcript) Jackson said: ‘. . . my position is, this is exactly why they have taken this exercise book because I imagine it would embarrass a lot of people about what’s in there and where the money went to. . .’ This is an odd statement given that she had just finished telling the Commissioner that she couldn’t remember how the NHDA cash withdrawals had been disbursed. For whatever reason Stolja let it slide.
The statement could be passed off as a veiled threat to her “enemies” if it were not for the following facts.
The existence of NHDA account must have been known about if only because payments into it were recorded in the branch accounts yet it took a long time to surface despite the factional fighting. Jackson in her evidence claimed that Williamson knew about her ‘fighting fund’. According Holts statement (para 81) Holt sent an email to Gibson back in January 2011 referring any questions about the NHDA to “Kathy/Michael”.
In the days leading up to Jackson’s fateful Wednesday at the RC Michael Smith published posts and audio clips saying that they relished Kathy’s opportunity to appear again and that certain members of the Labor movement had a lot to worry about. Delusional perhaps – or was she intending to come clean on the fate of some of the 250,000 and what was in that statement she was preparing for the day?
It will indeed be a rocky road and I’m sure the Liars will be going all out to spread as much poison as they can, but I think they’ll also be pretty busy avoiding the fallout from Jacksonville. She won’t stay silent to protect them
And government hasn’t been the smooth sailing they anticipated particularly after all the groundwork Meredoch laid down.
I do think people will not be as eager to swallow the Liars’ bait wrt unions particularly as their budget has exposed them as the spiteful, deceitful, mendacious, petty monsters they truly are.
I’ll enjoy their fall.
I am almost certain that she is suddenly going to come down with a severe case of depression and probably need to be hospitalised. It is the way these people roll. Psycopathic scum.
Yes, Jane has nailed it. There are bigger more spiteful, deceitful, mendacious, petty monsters still spreading lies, pointing and saying look over there.
Craig Thomson, Michael Williamson and Kathy Jackson didn’t just fall in to their positions and decide to be corrupt.
It could be a different story if Kathy had taken the Vic parliament spot that she was offered by a former NSW based Federal Senator and kept her mouth shut. (Something that was never denied at the time.)
Of course, a democracy that is underpinned by dodgy deals operates that way and parliamentary positions can be handed around like lollies.
They are no longer in control and certainly have a lot to worry about.
People are ignoring their diversionary tactics.
Me, Larry Pickering, my son Hugh, my mum, Hugh’s mum, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
Here is an article from today’s edition of The Australian.
Rebecca Weisser
All in the family
FORMER copper and radio host Michael Smith was scratching his head yesterday over a piece on rogue cartoonist Larry Pickering’s blog suggesting Smith was too close to ‘‘ambushed’’ Heath Service Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson. Smith said the idea the pair were anything other than good friends was “ludicrous — I’ve always said we’re close and if you want me to say how close, I’ll say very close”. Smith called back to say Jackson would today be hosting a birthday party for his eight-year-old son Hugh “and present will be Jackson’s fiance Michael Lawler, my mum, my former wife, two of my sisters and my children — so if it is what Pickering thinks it is, then there’s a hell of a lot of us in it”.
Greg, you are not making any sense. Kathy Jackson pretended to be a squeaky clean whistleblower within the HSU and claimed all and sundry were corrupt but her.
Williamson confessed in the face of overwhelming evidence of fraud and is rightly in prison.
Thomson was collateral damage who had to be dealt with because he is not corrupt, he did audits every year he was in the job and the Jackson gang hated him for it.
His abuse and torture over charges that he was convicted of even though they had been dismissed was Kathy’s revenge pure and simple and it has now all back fired as she is the biggest thief of them all.
Thanks Wixxy<I am as usual greatly learned from you of this tale of corruption,embezzlement,fraud,slander,theft,lies/deceit and downright not niceness.
Cheers M8.
Great Work Wixxie.
Just a few extra numbers to add to the lazy $1.7 mill that she creamed, might be the extra $170 k per year, in extra salary that she scalped after getting rid of Craig Thomson.
Multiply that by however many years and it makes Williamson look like he wasn’t even trying, or a bit slow.
That has to nudge her up well over $2million bucks.
Its a wonder the union could pay the light bill under her management.
I wonder if Jackson gave Reith a charity shag, they both look smitten in that pic.
Pass the spew bucket please.