Kathy Jackson (born c. 1967) was the national secretary of the Health Services Union of Australia (HSU) between January 2008 and February 2015. In August 2015, Jackson was found by the Australian federal court to have misappropriated union funds and was ordered to repay $1.4 million in compensation, with a criminal investigation pending.
Career
Jackson was an official of the Health Services Union's Number Three branch which represents highly skilled health professionals like radiographers, physiotherapists, radiation therapists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and psychologists from 1992, and was the Secretary of that branch until its merger with HSUeast. In 2008 she was appointed to the position of national secretary, the first female to hold that post.
Jackson is also a member of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, as part of its Labor Unity faction, aligned with former Senator David Feeney.
She has taken high-profile positions on a range of issues including corporate and union donations to political campaigns. She told The Australian: "Without restrictions on donations and public funding... we'll end up like the United States with two parties owned by the corporations divided only on lifestyle issues like gay marriage."
Jackson was occasionally critical of the Brumby Labor government in Victoria. During 2007 and 2008, the HSU was embroiled in an enterprise bargaining dispute with the government, during which the Health Minister Daniel Andrews used legal mechanisms under federal law to restrict the union's industrial action. Jackson said at the time: "It's also time that Mr Brumby wakes up and realises that Victorians did not endorse the use of WorkChoices for use against anyone, let alone their health workers. We will bargain lawfully, but we will not lie down."
Health Services Union corruption
Succeeding Craig Thomson as general secretary of the HSU in January 2008, Jackson was ordered by the National Executive to engage external auditors to investigate Thomson. Reporting in May 2008, the audit raised "concerns about evidence of misuse of union funds by Mr Thomson." In December 2008, the union engaged tax specialists BDO Kendall to "conduct an investigation" over the alleged improper use of Thomson's union-issued corporate credit card. The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the allegations in April 2009. Thomson denied any wrongdoing and stated that an independent audit had not identified any inappropriate use of the card. He noted that other people would have been able to incur charges on the account, and said the accusations had been fabricated by rivals within the HSU.
Investigations by Fair Work Australia, the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police, and Victorian Police led to Thomson being charged with 140 offences relating to theft and fraud. He was tried in the Melbourne Magistrates Court and on 18 February 2014 he was found guilty of theft from the HSU and of defrauding the HSU. It was found that Thomson had misused his union credit card to pay for prostitutes, travel expenses and cigarettes, and for accommodation and dinners even after he'd left the union to run for Parliament.
Allegations of improprieties in the HSU East branch (HSUeast) involving Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson, a former national president of the HSU, a former general secretary of HSUeast, and a former union and Labor right-wing factional power broker, were publicly revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald on 9 September 2011. On 4 October 2012, Williamson was charged with more than 50 offences relating to fraud and obstruction of justice, and was suspended as director of United Edge. Appearing before the Sydney Magistrates Court on 15 October 2013, Williamson entered a guilty plea to four major charges related to cheating and defrauding HSUeast, creating false documents with the intention to deceive and the recruiting of others to hinder a police investigation. All other charges were dropped.