Kathy Jackson given suspended 2-year jail sentence for defrauding HSU

Jackson has come under fire after escaping a jail term for defrauding the HSU during her role as secretary.

Former Health Services Union secretary Kathy Jackson. Picture: AAP

Kathy Jackson will have a two-year jail term hanging over her head for the next 30 months after a judge handed down a suspended jail sentence for defrauding the Health Services Union of $102,892 between 2003 and 2010.

Jackson sat in her home in coastal NSW and followed the sentencing proceeding on a computer as County Court Judge Amanda Fox said Jackson would have been sentenced to three years and three months jail if she had not pleaded guilty to some of the charges.

Jackson, 52, was found guilty in a trial last year of defrauding the HSU No. 3 branch when she was branch secretary.

She claimed $13,100 from the union for an overseas trip where she represented HESTA and claimed $22,000 for a Mercedes by “very deliberately and dishonestly” deceiving the union bookkeeper and reporting the expense as legal fees, Judge Fox said.

Former union official Michael Williamson was jailed over union fraud.

Jackson pleaded guilty earlier this year to a rolled-up charge relating to 23 travel related expenses including trips to Bali, New Zealand, Hong Kong, America and Europe.

“These trips had nothing to do with union purpose of business, they were for pleasure,” Judge Fox said.

The second rolled-up charge related to personal expenditure including CDs, furniture, gifts and artwork that were also dishonestly claimed from the union as work-related expenses.

Judge Fox said the union’s Branch Committee of Management trusted Jackson to manage the finances.

“You took advantage of your position and abused the trust of others to commit these offences,” she said.

“Your offending was brazen and ongoing. It involved thought and some planning.”

Judge Fox said while the amount of money involved was not great compared to other white collar offences that came before the court, it was still substantial and the money was to serve the interests of union members.

Former federal politician and union official Craig Thomson was convicted on theft charges relating to his time at the HSU. Picture: AAP

“[You were] motivated by greed not need, and perhaps a sense of entitlement,” Judge Fox said.

Judge Fox referred to Jackson’s whistleblowing on fellow corrupt union officials Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson but said there was insufficient evidence it was an attempt by Jackson to deflect attention from her own conduct.

“I’m not sure what motivated you to report corruption in the HSU,” she said.

Judge Fox said she took into account Jackson’s guilty plea which avoided a second trial of four to six weeks and witnesses giving evidence a second time, as well as the impact of COVID on the court’s workload.

However she said the plea was not evidence of remorse.

Judge Fox said Jackson posed a low-risk of reoffending and had no prior convictions.

“It was your good character that placed you in a position of trust and enabled your offending over a number of years,” she said.

Union’s reputation ‘trashed’

In a victim impact statement read to the court, HSU National Secretary Lloyd Williams said Jackson had caused “enormous” harm to the union’s reputation.

He said there had been extensive public examination of the union following Jackson’s whistleblowing on Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson and exposure of her own conduct.

“The reputation of the union was trashed,” he said. “[The HSU] became a byword for union corruption.”

Mr Williams said the corruption allegations led to the expulsion of the union from the Australian Council of Trade Unions and in part to the establishment of the trade union royal commission.

“To the best of my knowledge no union has ever been thrown out of the ACTU as the HSU was,” he said.

Mr Williams said Jackson’s conduct struck at the core of the values and duties of a union official including honesty, good faith and adherence to the law, as well as a key part of the medical profession – avoiding harm to others or the community.

“Ms Jackson has never apologised to the union for her misconduct. She has never apologised to the members for her misconduct.”

Current HSU No. 3 branch secretary (the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association) Craig McGregor told the court officials were widely regarded as corrupt following exposure of Jackson’s conduct.

He said the union had plummeted from 5080 members under Jackson to at one point just 2813 members.