UPDATED Craig Thomson's extra-parliamentary income website - further developments today
Thursday, 02 May 2013
This web address is most peculiar, it's obscure and hard to find. I would have thought that someone interested in receiving public donations would link the site to his homepage or other easily found sites, or make it searchable, or at least findable.
https://sites.google.com/site/craigthomsonlegaldefencefund/
I have tried to find Craig's site on a search engine without success.
The first media reports I'm aware of on the site were on 30 April, that's Tuesday this week. This piece from the SMH is typical of the reporting.
This News Limited piece of the same date by Gemma Jones takes much the same line, but Gemma quotes Craig Thomson:
Mr Thomson said two retired men, listed on the account as Mark Worthington and Rodney Allan who he has never met, had volunteered to set up the "Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund."
"I welcome the funding but it is not something I asked for, I thank supporters for deciding to set up the account," he said last night.
If you click on the News Limited link above you'll see the Sky News report which actually says that the two retired men set up the website.
Yesterday, we reported here that by using the search box on Mr Thomson's Google-hosted webpage you will be shown who posted each update to the site.
I was surprised to see no further reporting of the fact of Mr Thomson's taxpayer funded press secretary's name being listed as the person posting on the site. That man is David Gardiner. He has not returned my calls.
At about this time last night, the search box function was removed from Mr Thomson's website. Can you think of a reason as to why a change like that would be made?
The person who controls Mr Thomson's website may have believed that by removing the search function from the website, they had erased all trace of their involvement. But as reader Grant confirms, every touch leaves its trace. Test this for yourself, if you interrogate Google with the following query, you will see who made the last alteration to the Craig Thomson legal defence fund site, just copy and paste it into your browser:
David Gardiner, Thomson's taxpayer funded press secretary updated the site last night just before 11PM, Sydney time. That's when the search box on the site disappeared.
This morning Fairfax reported that Mr Thomson's father was behind the website. The Fairfax report went on to state, however, that one of the two signatories to the fund stated that it was Craig Thomson MP himself who had arranged for the website to be established.
Craig Thomson's ailing father is behind a bank account set up to raise money for the embattled MP's legal bills.
And the member for Dobell created the website that invites donations from the public, according to one of two retirees who agreed to become signatories to the trust account.
Steve has interviewed Mr Thomson and his report includes these statements:
It has emerged that Mr Thomson's ailing father, Jack, was behind the fund, a website declaring it "accepts donations for (the MP's) legal defence".
Mr Thomson is facing criminal and civil proceedings relating to the alleged misuse of union funds before he entered parliament in 2007.
The "legal defence fund" carries the signatures of two Bathurst men, Mark Worthington and Rodney Allan, who are friends and former work colleagues of Mr Thomson's father, a retiree who also lives in the NSW regional centre.
Under pressure to disclose further details of the fund, Mr Thomson denied making any misleading statements as he launched his public appeal.
"I did not mislead anyone over the setting up of the web page. But I do note there was some inaccurate reporting," he told News Limited.
He also denied that any taxpayer-funded resources - or staff members - were used to promote the fund.
I am amazed that a simple check on google that reveals that it's Thomson's press secretary who's set up the webpage has not been more widely reported - let me change that - has not been reported at all other than on this site . Or that Thomson's press secretary changed the site last night to remove the search box function. This is serious stuff and Thomson is lying about it. Steve Lewis quotes Thomson denying that his staff were used to promote the fund. That assertion of Thomson's is manifestly false.
Here are links to a News Limited and a Fairfax story from 10 May 2012, nearly one year ago. Each reports that the Labor Party had been paying Thomson's legal bills, but that the payments by the Party stopped when Gillard suspended him.
Tonight I received a statement from an impeccable and highly placed Labor Party source that contradicts those reports. I'm told the Party continued to pay for Thomson's legal bills - and that the website and bank account have been set up to receive "anonymous" donations to distance the Party from direct payments to Thomson's lawyers.
Well the website and the "Trust" account might be used to pay the bills now, but it wasn't the case during the last sitting week when Thomson stormed from the parliamentary precinct one sitting night amid much rancour about "my lawyer's bills not being paid".
More tomorrow.