24 August, 2011.

Kathy Jackson announced that the Health Services Union national executive had resolved, on behalf of its members, to refer the allegations identified by Doug Williams in April 2009 to police.

Question time was cut short as pandemonium broke out in the chamber.

Here's how The Australian saw it that afternoon.

Health Services Union to refer Craig Thomson Allegations to Police

A FORMAL criminal investigation into Labor MP Craig Thomson appears likely after the Health Services Union's national executive today resolved to refer allegations of union credit card misuse against him to the NSW Police.

HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson said, after a tense meeting of the union's executive at a Sydney hotel, that while the union had originally believed Fair Work Australia should investigate the matter, the recent publicity surrounding Mr Thomson and what Ms Jackson called “new information” had led union leaders to the decision to go to the police.

Mr Thomson, who holds the marginal seat of Dobell on the NSW Central Coast, has denied allegations that when he was HSU national secretary he used his union credit card to hire prostitutes, buy airline tickets for his then wife, dine at expensive restaurants, and take hundreds of dollars of cash from ATMs at a time.

The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, this week said that while opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis had sent him material regarding Mr Thomson, it would not on its own be sufficient to launch an investigation.

But Mr Scipione said he would be “happy” to investigate the matter if the HSU lodged a complaint.

The Commissioner would be happy to investigate if the HSU lodged a complaint.   He didn't have long to wait - by the time he'd made that comment to The Australian the wheels were in motion.

I'd not seen these letters (below) from NSW Police before today.   They tell a hell of a story about that day.

Kathy Jackson made her announcement a bit after 2PM then went to NSW Police Headquarters for the formalities.

"Safe as houses" Williamson had failed to deliver the HSU executive vote to keep Thomson away from the police.   That meant very big risks for the Gillard Government.  

Now it was all over to Tim Lee to hold the fort.    But New South Wales Police did not waste a minute in contacting the General Manager of Fair Work Australia to ask him to do his civic duty on behalf of the union's members.

Note the time of this email.

I'm sure there would have been some nervous conversations that night in Canberra.

Detective Superintendent Watson, however, seemed unimpressed by any further delay.   The owners of the money, the union's members, had already waited far too long.

Superintendent Watson followed up in writing to confirm a telephone conversation with Mr Lee the next day.

Now, what would you say or do in Tim Lee's shoes?   If the union itself had gone to the police to report what it considered to be fraud, the police tell you they're investigating and you know that you have information that would be useful to them - what would you do?

Each of us has a civic duty to uphold the law - and certainly not to hinder police, or conceal evidence.

This response from Mr Lee leaves me shaking my head.   It's noteworthy for its weirdness and a most abnormal tone, an out of place legalese.    Mr Lee takes up most of the letter telling the NSW policeman that he, Mr Lee, is not a NSW policeman.   Der.   He was at that point a person in possession of evidence and information that police had an interest in.  

It's hard to find an explanation for the weirdness - other than Mr Lee acting to protect Mr Thomson and achieve the end that Michael Williamson had tried to achieve through the HSU National Executive.   Keep Thomson beyond the reach of police and the Gillard Government in power.

Victoria Police, the government's solicitors, the Senate Estimates Committee - there's much more in store in the history of this saga yet to come with plenty of new documents.

Post Script

In the Senate Estimates hearings for 2012-13, Senator Abetz posed the question below to discover that Tim Lee's response to a pretty simple request for a meeting with a policeman involved the Government Solicitor and an external lawfirm in the drafting of that letter above.

What did they have to hide?