You know that Craig Thomson is on a $190,000 salary, plus car, plus allowances, plus super, plus travel - and he is also provided with a large office in his electorate, mobile phone, laptop, and probably the most expensive gift of all, a staff of 4.

When Mr Thomson became an independent, he technically qualifed for an extra 3 staff on top of his base 4 - as at February this year, the APH website reports that Mr Thomson has not taken on those  additional staff.

Mr Thomson's staff should be engaged in Mr Thomson's parliamentary and electorate business.   It's well established that MPs can't use taxpayer funded staff to sayrun an outside business for profit.

David Gardiner is Mr Thomson's press secretary.   Here is a link to Mr Thomson's extra-curricular website which makes no bones about its purpose - to raise money for Mr Thomson.

https://sites.google.com/site/craigthomsonlegaldefencefund/

It's hosted on Google.   The website itself includes a search box in the top right hand corner.  If you search for any of the words or phrases that are actually used on the site, you'll receive a search result like this - reader Ian searched for the name Craig:

Try it yourself.   The Search facility on the site shows you who wrote or posted the words.   There is only one post on the site - Mr Thomson's letter asking you to send him money.

And the person who is listed as posting it is Mr Thomson's taxpayer funded Press Secretary David Gardiner.

I'd appreciate your views.