Kathy the crook: We hate to say we told you so, but...

Former darling of the mainstream media and hero of the Liberal Party, crooked HSU boss Kathy Jackson leaves Federal Court with a bloody nose and the promise of much worse to come, writes Peter Wicks.

YESTERDAY IN THE FEDERAL COURT case the Health Services Union had brought against former official Kathy Jackson, a number of things happened.

First and foremost, the Court ruled against Jackson, ordering that she pay the HSU $1,338,626, plus an extra $67,912 for extra salary she was paid. On top of this, she will pay interest and the HSU's legal costs with the final bill estimated at around $2.1 million.

The summary of the Court's decision is linked HERE.

But that is the obvious part; a number of other things also occurred.

For on, far from being a vindication of its work some people are contending, the Federal Court in fact dealt the Trade Union Royal Commission (TURC) another crippling blow to its integrity.

The Royal Commission went to extreme efforts to protect its golden-haired pseudo-whistleblower. At one point, Commissioner Heydon even interrupted Jackson’s testimony as she gormlessly and unwittingly admitted to committing a crime and called a short recess, seemingly to help her get her story straight. However, the train had already left the tracks and there was no reverse gear to be found. Many may remember how those testifying against Jackson’s union faction, such as Craig McGregor, were attacked and berated on the witness stand while Jackson’s allies were treated like visiting members of the royal family.

Despite her making a mockery of the Commission with her theatrics, the Commissioner allowed her to delay proceedings so that she was never thereafter pursued on the stand by the HSU’s lawyer to any reasonable extent.

When is a whistleblower not a whistleblower after all ?TURC turnabout: Kathy chokes on her whistle http://t.co/eezz3voPrw @IndependentAus
— Lyn Bender (@Lynestel) August 1, 2014

Another thing that happened in Federal Court yesterday relates to the astounding parliamentary apology put to parliament by Manager of Government Business Christopher Pyne and backed by the Coalition over the apparent defamation committed upon Jackson and her HSU cronies by the words of Craig Thomson in a 2012 parliamentary address. Today's outcome makes a mockery of this outrageous apology, which was done to further smear Thomson and the Labor Party, while dumping utterly undeserved plaudits on someone who was far less than squeeky clean or worthy. Indeed, the words of Craig Thomson in his address barely scratched the surface of Jackson's crimes; maybe it is Thomson who should apologise for going to soft on Jackson and her faction?

The Federal Court decision today makes Tony Abbott’s judgement look even less than average. The woman the court today found had seemingly defrauded some of the countries lowest paid workers of $1.4 Million, Tony Abbott praised in parliament as being courageous and decent. Now we wait to see if Tony Abbott’s brave bandit can avoid paying up by transferring her multi-million dollar property into the name of the man Tony Abbott appointed as Vice President of Fair Work Commission, Michael Lawler. An appointment he refuses to terminate despite Lawler taking more than six months off work as “leave” fully paid at the rate of $435K per annum by a bunch of suckers better known as the taxpaying public. A rort that makes Bronwyn Bishop look like an amateur.

Of course, another victim of todays Federal Court decision would have to be the mainstream media.

While Tony Abbott may have sung Jackson’s praises in parliament, he was not alone. Realistically he was only joining in the chorus being belted out by the vast majority of those in the mainstream media.

She was the media darling, the one with all of the dirt on Craig Thomson such as the hookers and brothels. The media lapped it all up like a big salivating dog, never questioning or finding it odd that they were the same brothels Kathy’s ex-husband allegedly frequented. The same hookers and brothels that Thomson, after years of public humiliation and smear at the hands of journalists who preferred to be lazy and run with the herd rather than put an effort into seeking out the truth, was eventually found not guilty of in all of the charges relating to them.

Now, isn't that a tragic tale, on so many levels?

Some will say they had no idea, but there are some who were more than aware of the facts. However, some of these people chose to try to threaten me legally rather than cease being a mouthpiece for Kathy Jackson and her allies.

@MrDenmore @MikeCarlton01 if they had known then, you would have a half sensible point. But no one did so you don't.
— David Gazard (@GazardDavid) August 19, 2015

David Gazard was a John Howard staffer, is a former failed Liberal Party candidate and, apparently, a current village idiot.

Now we wait to see how much money the lawyers can find in Jackson’s estate to return to the long-suffering HSU members.

The decision regarding the transfer of Jackson’s property into the name of Tony Abbott’s Fair Work Commission appointee Michael Lawler remains in the hands of the court. However, I am confident that this transfer will not go through, as to allow it to move forward would be both a travesty and a miscarriage of justice.

For Kathy and her gang, it must make them feel good that this is just the civil part of her legal fight, with the criminal charges being yet to come. I’m sure that, with the efforts of a combined Victorian and Federal taskforce asking the questions, there won’t be enough buses for Kathy’s former friends to throw each other under.

The bad days for Kathy are far from over; in fact, they’ve only just begun.

Peter Wicks is an ALP member and former NSW State Labor candidate. You can follow Peter on Twitter @madwixxy. Read more about the Jacksonville saga HERE. Donate to Peter's Jacksonville book writing fund HERE.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

@GazardDavid @MikeCarlton01 David, if your reading extended beyond Rupert, you'd be better informed. https://t.co/hJueINslyA
— Mr Denmore (@MrDenmore) August 19, 2015