interesting devil-elopments..in this ongoing revealation

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3319922.htm

but more revealing

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3319925.htm

its worth quoting in full

""Transcript
ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: The Health Services Union
has withdrawn its affiliation from the ALP.

Kathy Jackson,
welcome to Lateline.

KATHY JACKSON, NATIONAL SECRETARY,
HEALTH SERVICES UNION: Thank you, Ali.

ALI MOORE: HSU is a very big union.
Choosing to cut ties with the ALP
*on the very day the Prime Minister talks about the need*
to reform the party and actually grow the membership

was it the right decision to disaffiliate?

KATHY JACKSON: I think it was the right decision
to disaffiliate,..but for different reasons of why..I think that's occurred.

Firstly,I think that the disaffiliation should have happened,
but I don't think..it should have happened..the way it did happen.

I think that this is
another Sussex Street special*
..?

where they think..they can disaffiliate
and then,..once all this heat is off the Government,..!

..the Sussex Street boys will go back into,..
*you know..[i dont need to explain common knowlwedge]

[sussex boys]...have the union...
[and are..]..going back into the ALP coverups

What I was seeking was..that we disaffiliate,
but if we are to re-affiliate,..the re-affiliation
*must go..to a vote of the membership.

And that motion was defeated,
[BECAUSE}..*it wasn't even argued...!

ALI MOORE: You're supporting what the Liberals are saying
they're claiming this was to shield Labor..from collateral damage?

KATHY JACKSON: Well, I believe so.

It gives me no pleasure to say that.
I think that the right thing was to disaffiliate,
*but not because..to shield the Government,

but to disaffiliate..for the right reasons,
which is:..the members want answers...!

[re major colluded systematic fraud]

If Mr Thomson..and others aren't giving answers,
then..the union members deserve answers...!

ALI MOORE:By disaffiliating.

KATHY JACKSON:That's always been our position.

ALI MOORE:You actually think by disaffiliating,
you'll be able to get greater clarity..for your members?

KATHY JACKSON: I believe so.

The members also need to understand is,
if we are to re-affiliate..that has to be..*a membership vote...!

It cannot be the Sussex/Street boys
going back into...
[the same same?]..

give the union..back to the ALP...[membership]..

That's not..how it works...[presently]

ALI MOORE:I'm wondering how disaffiliation
can provide greater clarity.

What does it give you as an advantage;
what does it give members..as an advantage?

[maybe a union there for THEM
not for self advantage and a free lunch
then into a safe seat?]..?

KATHY JACKSON: I think it's a total red herring. I think they've thrown it in thinking that Kathy Jackson will back off, because she won't be a member of the administrative committee of the Labor Party or any other forum.

I do not seek that, I don't seek pre-selection; I don't seek to be on the Labor Party administrative committee. I am. I am there at the moment representing members of the union.

If that's ... if they don't want us to be there, this is fine.

This is not about the ALP. It's about bringing integrity and accountability to the Health Services Union, full stop.

ALI MOORE:There were a number of other decisions made at today's union council meeting -we'll look at the decisions in a moment.

You didn't agree with them.

The mere fact the motions got through;..you weren't in the majority, were you?..Is the council not representative of your members

are they not voted for every four years?

KATHY JACKSON: They are,..they are,
but I believe the council..is not representative of the membership.

*The 50 or so councillors on the telephone hook-up today are definitely not representative of the membership.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of emails from members and the general public saying, "Keep going, don't capitulate,..I suppose, to the bully boys of Sussex Street..and the bully boys within the Health Services Union."

I'm not stopping.

ALI MOORE:But does that mean that the membership has changed
since the last election..for the union council representatives?

KATHY JACKSON:I think what's changed is:
on amalgamation,..in May of 2010,..with Victorian branch joining the HSU NSW branch,

I think they thought that
we were going to go along..for the magic carpet ride

I'm not going on a magic carpet ride

This is not, you know ...I'm not in a...

today I felt like I was in some scene
from Married to the Mob...It's just ridiculous.

You could sell tickets to this...This is about making sure that HSU members..*get answers..from their leadership

about where our money is spent.

If it is misappropriated and misused,
our members deserve answers...!

It's farcical. It's totally farcical. Strike Force Carnarvon has been established. Let's put that to one side.

ALI MOORE: That's the police investigation?

KATHY JACKSON: That's the police investigation. What I was seeking today was that independent body was set up where the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Law Society nominate people to investigate the HSU, with no official of the HSU - including myself - being part of that.

It has to be arms-length from the union, so the members have transparency. That did not occur. Instead, we have a group of mates judging a group of mates. We're not judge and jury.

ALI MOORE: Why is it important to have a union inquiry, given, as you said, there is the police inquiry. There is also the Fair Work inquiry. You want a union inquiry to run concurrently with those?

KATHY JACKSON: I want ... the test for the police ... what the police are doing is a criminal investigation.

What I'm seeking an internal investigation to the HSU
*by independent people, arms-length from the union -not me,
not the president, not the general secretary,
not any of the other officials.

That has not occurred..!
We owe to our membership ...forget criminal charges,
they're there..on one side.

If there has been other misappropriation of funds,
how do we let out contracts,..what is the tender process?

There just isn't, you know?
We can't allow these matters to continue as they have been.

We amalgamated in good faith.
Our members feel, in Victoria, that they've been sold short.

I did not go into this process to become ... to participate in running a corporation...!

We don't run a corporation.
We represent working men and women in the health industry.

ALI MOORE: You say that you've had quite a large lot of feedback from those men and women today. How many signatures do you need on a petition to get today's decisions overturned?

KATHY JACKSON: Five per cent of the membership, so it's not going to be hard. I'm prepared to take ... I was asked earlier when I was going to resign over this. I'm not resigning, I'm going nowhere. I'm going to make sure our members get the answers they deserve from every official of this union.

ALI MOORE: Will you get that 5 per cent?

KATHY JACKSON: I'm definitely going to get the 5 per cent. I've got at least 5 per cent of people - members - who have already emailed me saying, "If you leave, then we leave too".

I'm going nowhere...I'll see the battle out.
It has become a battle...It's not of my making.

But our members deserve answers.

Why am I on this program tonight?

Why aren't any of the other officials..of the union
speaking to the media?

ALI MOORE:..Kathy Jackson,
who's running the HSU right now?

It appears entirely dysfunctional.

KATHY JACKSON:..Sorry it appears totally dysfunctional,..it is totally dysfunctional at the moment...!

We have enterprise bargaining campaigns to run,
we've got grievances to pursue.

Yet, here we are having a public brawl over the fact that they won't allow an independent inquiry to come into the HSU,..and look at our books.

*They wouldn't even allow members..
rank and file members -to come and look at the books.

ALI MOORE:..I understand it's gone further
than a public brawl -your computer systems..have now been affected?

KATHY JACKSON:..I understand that late this afternoon
the database in the Melbourne office was disabled...!

No staff member in Victoria..has access to the database.

I find that totally,..totally reprehensible.

This is a database run by Mr Williamson, United Edge.

[the plot thickens]

United Edge..[lol]..provide computer services to the union.

Yet late this afternoon,
the database went down and we have no answers from Sydney.

I'm seeking for that database to be re-established.
We have work to do.

But I don't need the database.

What I need is a database that hard working men and women
working at the HSU -honest people working..at the HSU -can go off and do their daily work.

I do not need a database..to gather a petition.

There is a groundswell of membership...members out there:
there's 40-45,000 of them out there saying, "We deserve answers".

If the leadership of this union think they can hide behind the council,..they have another thing coming to them.

ALI MOORE: Kathy Jackson, many thanks for talking to Lateline tonight.

KATHY JACKSON: Thank you.

ALI MOORE: Late tonight Michael Williamson told Lateline
he has no idea why the computer database at the HSU office in Victoria isn't operating properly.

He added that the HSU in NSW also experienced
a series of technical problems this afternoon
and they are being investigated.

lol

case closed?
you bet

Belly,

You are right, Thie was dealt with in the correct manner.