Nick O'malley, Phillip Coorey
August 23, 2011
In question time ... Craig Thomson. Photo: Andrew Meares
CALLS made from Craig Thomson's mobile phone appear to cast more doubt on the embattled Labor MP's denial that he was responsible for using his Health Services Union credit card to pay prostitutes.
Since the Herald revealed the spending in 2009, Mr Thompson has denied the allegations, saying other people had access to the card and, by implication, to his mobile phone. But the Herald can reveal that the phone used to contact escort agencies was also used to call senior Labor and union figures.
Court documents show that on April 7, 2005, Mr Thomson's phone was used to call escort agencies at 11.12pm and 11.13pm, and again at 12.05 the following morning, April 8.
The same phone was used to call a media contact for the Labor MP Stephen Smith at 6.43pm and 8.25pm on April 7, and in the previous 24 hours the phone had been used to call Michael Williamson, the then general secretary of the Health Services Union.
As the Herald revealed, Mr Thomson's card was used to pay $2475 to an escort agency on April 8.
Early on the morning of August 16, 2007, Mr Thomson's phone was used to call two escort agencies. In the two preceding days the same phone had been used to contact two staffers of the Health Services Union, a close friend of Mr Thomson's and a staff member of Labor MP Mark Arbib. Also on August 15 a payment of $385 was made to an escort agency from Mr Thomson's credit card.
The shadow attorney-general, George Brandis, sent a letter to the NSW police yesterday requesting they investigate.
If Mr Thomson were charged and convicted, he would have to leave Parliament.
The Coalition would most likely win his seat in a byelection and threaten Labor's ability to maintain government.
Mr Thomson's old union has not pressed charges and Senator Brandis said people could draw their own conclusions about that. However, the union did withhold $191,000 in entitlements it owed Mr Thomson when he left to enter Parliament.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, continued to express confidence in Mr Thomson.
The independents sided with the Coalition on a motion by opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne requiring Mr Thomson to explain himself to Parliament.
Senior Labor minister Anthony Albanese accused the Coalition leader, Tony Abbott, of double standards for demanding that Mr Thomson stand down as the chairman of the House Economics Committee. Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher is charged with shoplifting but is still the chairman of a parliamentary committee.
In April, Mr Thomson dropped defamation proceedings against the Herald, which had alleged that he was unfit to be a federal member of Parliament because he had sworn a knowingly false affidavit in the proceedings.
Business, prostitute calls made on the same night with Thomson's phone
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