Shorten must state where he stands on Thomson

The Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten has failed to say whether he will support referring Craig Thomson to the Privileges Committee for misleading the House of Representatives. Mr Shorten was asked on three occasions today whether he will support referring this matter, but did not give a clear statement either way. This comes as little surprise since Labor has been running a protection racket for Craig Thomson over the last three years, keeping Mr Thomson in the Parliament to hold onto power at all costs. Back in 2011 Mr Shorten was asked whether he supports Mr Thomson and he said: NEIL MITCHELL: You've run a union, you understand these things, do you support him? BILL SHORTEN: Oh, yeah, I believe him. (Radio 3AW, 24/8/2011) Mr Shorten must immediately do three things. First, he must apologise for Labor’s three year protection racket of Craig Thomson who has now been found guilty of theft and fraud. Second, Mr Shorten needs to rise above his union background and support this matter being referred to the Privileges Committee. Craig Thomson stood in the Parliament and denied using his Health Services Union credit card to procure prostitutes. Mr Thomson used his statement to smear and blame others. Does Mr Shorten still believe him? Third, if Mr Shorten truly wanted to stamp out corruption in the union movement he would support the Coalition’s Royal Commission into union corruption and also support the Registered Organisations Commission legislation. Only these three steps will demonstrate conclusively that Mr Shorten wants to get tough on union corruption. 19 February 2014