Government hasn't interfered in Craig Thomson FWA probe

WORKPLACE Relations Minister Bill Shorten says as far as he knows 
no one in the Federal Government has interfered in a Fair Work 
Australia (FWA) investigation involving a Labor MP.


The agency is nearing the end of a long investigation surrounding 
allegations of misuse of a union credit card by Labor backbencher 
Craig Thomson when he was national secretary of the Health 
Services Union (HSU).


Its formal investigation has been running since March 2010, 
although the allegations were first raised in April 2009.


Current HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson says there needs 
to be an external inquiry into why the investigation is taking so 
long and she could not rule out interference by the Government.


Mr Shorten rejected any allegations of government interference.


"To my knowledge they haven't interfered, no," he told ABC 
Radio today.


Mr Shorten said FWA had indicated its report of the investigation 
would be released on or around March 5.


Cabinet secretary Mark Dreyfus said Ms Jackson herself had 
said she had no evidence for her allegations.


"People should lay off independent public servants that are 
going about their job," he told Sky News.


"This is an independent statutory agency and when it's finished 
its investigation and made its report public, that's the time 
for comment on it."


Liberal Party backbencher Jamie Briggs said Ms Jackson was 
just "truth-telling".


"It's some pretty hard questions for the Prime Minister to 
answer today," he said.