Museum Peace

Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

There is a story in the Australian newspapers that I find very interesting. It concerns a politician called Craig Thompson who has been accused of misusing the funds of a union when he worked there. There is proof that he used a lot of money on prostitutes, expensive meals, travel, etc; having free use of the union credit cards. Mr Thompson is now ain independent member assisting  the federal government.

A government agency has investigated and released a report saying he acted fraudulently. Mr Thompson has refused to speak about this for months and months, but after this report came out, he went on television and said that he had been threatened by people in the union, who said that they would set him up to ruin his career by exactly the things that he has been accused of.

I’m not sure what it is that makes this case so interesting. Perhaps it’s the response of the press. That’s ridiculous, they all say. But actually my impression is that it is not at all ridiculous.

The press loves a good scandal. So it strikes me as particularly odd that they would not want to even indulge this new element in the scandal. It might be that they can see that the possible result would be the discrediting of the unions, and the undermining of the Labor government for all the worst reasons. The Labor government’s traditional base was unions, of course. And then, of course, it’s unusual for someone to come out and talk conspiracy after being so long silent. I guess he was expecting the report to have investigated his claims. But of course they didn’t. They limited their investigation to exactly what they were told to look for, and kept their eyes away from anything else that might have had a connection or been a contributing factor.

Yes, I well understand how they came to the conclusion that they did. But now, if Mr Thompson’s confidence in speaking out can indicate that he does have some evidence to back up his claims, it will be interesting to see if anyone in the press can get past their fear of this situation and take another look at it. At the moment, not even the Liberal, opposition, conservative press will touch it.