The trials and torments of poor little Kathy Jackson

Poor Kathy Jackson, sitting in her multi-million dollar beachside mansion, lamenting about the whole world being against her. Peter Wicks' heart bleeds — for the HSU members she allegedly bled for over a million dollars.

It must be tough being Kathy Jackson.

At least, that’s what she would like us all too think.

Appearing before Melbourne Federal Court on Monday, via a video link from Sydney, for a preliminary hearing before her trial begins next week, Kathy’s lawyer gave us quite a sob story. The barrister spoke of a giant, evil conspiracy amongst the unions – even including Bill Shorten – who are all out to "get her". Also attempted was another shot at having the entire case against her dismissed, however that failed. The $1.4 million civil case against her by the HSU will go forward, assuming no further attempts are made by Jackson’s legal representation to further delay the inevitable.

While Jackson tries to convince all and sundry of a conspiracy against her led by the unions who she appears to think control the courts and legal process, it is already clear that she is not receiving harsh treatment — she is in fact being handled with kid gloves and receiving special treatment.

An example is Jackson appearing by video-link rather than heading to Melbourne to present her case in person. Some may remember that this was also what Craig Thomson sought to do during his civil trial, however the court rejected that and so off he headed off to Victoria for the trial.

An anti-Kathy conspiracy, indeed!

As Craig Thomson tries to figure out how he can pay his mortgage without upsetting Fairfax, Michael Williamson languishes in a jail cell, Peter Mylan picks up the pieces after being driven almost to bankruptcy and while Gerard Hayes hopes everyone will forget how he played both sides, Kathy Jackson must be finding things hard.

It must be tough for poor Kathy sitting in her seaside multi-million dollar mansion, or perhaps by the pool, listening to the sounds of the ocean and seagulls and trying to think up ways to shift the assets out of her name so that those pesky lowly paid union members can’t retrieve any of the members funds she is alleged to have misappropriated.

While Jackson’s lawyers point fingers of blame regarding destroyed documents, Kathy must be touching wood that people forget the bags of shredded documentation that her faction left in the union offices and hoping her old mate Ruth Kershaw is back in Paris again so nobody can ask her any questions about documents and shredders.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s partner Michael Lawler continues to drag the Fair Work Commission's reputation through the mud. The Australian has continued to highlight the massive conflict of interest in his involvement in Kathy Jackson’s union and legal affairs whilst squeezing a whopping estimated $430,000 salary out of the taxpayers for his Tony Abbott appointed role as vice president of the Fair Work Commission.

I was amused to note in one of those recent articles, it talks of some of these conflicts being raised by 'hostile bloggers' and others being published in an 'online newspaper'. Call it a hunch but I think the Aus may be referring to the same people in both these instances. If a hostile blogger for an online newspaper broke the news about Jackson and Lawler over three years ago and The Australian has just climbed on board now, it sounds more like it is a hostile mainstream media following along miles behind an informed blogger writing for an online newspaper.