24 Oct 2012

Search warrant issued on Australian MP's home

8:40 pm on 24 October 2012

Australian police have raided the home and electoral office of embattled MP Craig Thomson, accused of spending thousands of dollars of union funds on hospitality and prostitutes.

They executed a search warrant on behalf of Victorian police at Mr Thomson's home at Bateau Bay on the New South Wales' central coast.

Mr Thomson says he is co-operating with police, but insists he has done nothing wrong, AAP reports.

The former national secretary of the Health Services Union told reporters outside his house that the warrant was in relation to "the broader inquiry into the national office of the Health Services Union".

Mr Thomson said police had taken a couple of documents, which he had volunteered.

"Can I say at the outset, I've done nothing wrong and we are fully co-operating with police in relation to the Health Services Union investigation."

Fair Work Australia (FWA) is taking Mr Thomson - the former Labor MP who was suspended from the party in April - to the Federal Court, alleging 37 breaches of workplace laws and 25 breaches of HSU rules when he was national secretary from 2002 to 2007.

In September 2011, NSW police's fraud squad - examining whether Mr Thomson misused HSU credit cards to pay for prostitutes, travel and cash advances - found no evidence of an offence under NSW law.

They sent the file on to Victorian police where the HSU's national finances were based.

Victorian police have now been investigating the matter for a year, but have yet to press any charges.

Mr Thomson said he hoped the investigation would be over by the end of the year and he has not been charged with anything.