Commissioner Val Gostencnik was in 2012:

• legal advisor to the independent Fair Work Australia
• the provider of legal advice FWA would rely on to justify it not cooperating with police pursuing Thomson -  contradicting the AGS advice FWA could assist police
• the recipient of a complete set of the final report into Thomson and the HSU when it was still highly confidential and was weeks away from release to other parties
• within days of receiving the report, he commenced acting as legal representative for Minister Bill Shorten in an application for an Administrator to be appointed to the HSU.  

Gostencnik had in his possession secret information contained in the FWA report and its Appendices that was not available to the Respondents in Shorten's application for an Administrator.  He could not unknow the confidential things he knew.   His decision to accept Shorten's brief and Shorten's decision to appoint him created irreconcilable conflicts in his duty not to use the FWA confidential information and his duty to use all his available faculties and resources in the interests of Shorten's application.

The fact of Gostencnik being a potential conduit for the passage of confidential information into evidentiary material and pleadings in Shorten's matter - even unknowingly or with the best of human intentions for it not to be passed on - represents the insertion of a political interference in the FWA investigation.

The time delay advantaged the Gillard government and Thomson in giving him more time in parliament than had the process arrived more speedily at an adverse outcome.   Those are political advantages.   There is strong evidence that a good and valid order for the commencement of the investigation in June 2009 was made by the Statutory Officer Doug Williams.   That order was not complied with.   When the Senate Estimates Committee proposed to put the question of why was to be put to the only man who could answer, the GM of FWA Tim Lee, he was moved to a judicial role beyond the powers of the Senate's compulsion to attend.   A Miniser in the Labor Government made that announcement.

The decision not to cooperate with the police criminal investigation, contradicting the recommendation of the AGS delivered a potential political advantage to the incumbency of the Gillard government.  

Shorten's application to the Federal Court had an intrinsic political dimension to it as the Administrator who supplanted any elected HSU officials could direct the way certain voting decisions were made.

In early 2012 Fair Work Australia appointed KPMG to conduct a review of the FWA investigation. A key focus of the review was the pursuit of any indications/suspicions of "interference" in the matter by parties external to the independent FWA.

The key reference in the scope of the investigation and KPMG's finding in answer are here:

1.4.4 Considering the overall integrity of the investigation process and whether there are  any indications of potential interference.
Through the work undertaken KPMG did not identify any indications of potential interference
in the HSU investigation process.

In the circumstances you'd hope some care was taken in appointing a reviewing entity.

There was only one person approach to make a recommendation.   Val Gostencnik.  He recommended two people he knew at KPMG - people who were already doing work for clients of his.

That recommendation was wholly accepted.  Over the next few days we will tell you the breathtaking story behind this whitewash.

Here's a link to the KPMG report that did not identify any indications of potential interference
in the HSU investigation process.