Craig Thomson's fraud charge hearing to take place after election

CRAIG Thomson has avoided interrupting his re-election campaign to face court on fraud charges, with his next appearance after the poll.

EMBATTLED MP Craig Thomson has avoided interrupting his re-election campaign to face court on fraud charges, with his next appearance rescheduled to occur after the September 7 poll.

Mr Thomson, who became an independent after the Labor party suspended his membership last year, was originally listed to attend the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning for a committal mention on 173 criminal charges laid against him.

Victoria Police allege he misappropriated Health Services Union funds to pay for perks including adult movies and prostitutes.

The court today confirmed the case had been adjourned to 11 September, the week after the election.

Mr Thomson has instead remained in his Dobell electorate on the NSW central coast, joining ABC radio this morning for a campaign broadcast in which he urged voters to "look at my record".

Video: Campaign HQ - In the margins

Asked about the impact of the court proceedings, he said some people did not believe in his innocence but it was not a key issue for people in Dobell.

"As much as I would love the electorate to say 'Look, we believe what Craig has said, he's totally innocent,' I know that's not the case with a lot of people," he said.

"(But) the majority of people who have come up to me....whether they're going to vote for me or not, said 'Actually we don't really care about that issue, it's a long time ago, it was before you were an MP.'

"It is a thing particularly outside the electorate that people like to focus on but in the electorate here on the Central Coast ... they care far more about the important issues that affect their lives everyday."

A Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Australian last weekend shows his Liberal opponent is likely to pick up the seat, with half the voters polled in Dobell and the neighbouring seat of Robertson saying they would vote for the Coalition.

Labor candidates picked up 35 per cent of the primary vote, while only seven per cent said they would vote for other candidates including Mr Thomson.

Mr Thomson dismissed the Newspoll results saying results of his own polling showed a different result.

"We know we're very competitive," he said.

Mr Thomson stands accused of falsely representing that the HSU had authorised thousands of dollars of credit-card spending, including payment for escorts and cash withdrawals from bank accounts, and using union credit cards to pay for pornographic movies at hotels.

Mr Thomson's barrister Greg James QC last month told the court it was "very likely" there would be no contentious issues about the facts of the expenditure and the case instead related to whether Mr Thomson had authority for the spending as HSU national secretary.

He has previously denied the allegations and faces a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment if found guilty.