NSW Labor spent $350k defending Thomson

9 Jun 2012, 12:26 pm   -   Source: AAP
Craig Thomson. (AAP)

Craig Thomson. (AAP)

MP Craig Thomson received $350,000 in help from NSW Labor to pay his legal bills to prevent a byelection, Fairfax Media reports.

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The NSW branch of the Labor Party paid almost $350,000 in legal costs defending embattled federal MP Craig Thomson until he was sidelined from the party.

More than two-thirds of that amount - $240,000 - was paid to Fairfax Media, under an agreement reached in 2011 when Mr Thomson withdrew a defamation action he had initiated in 2009.

Fairfax Media reports that another $108,000 was spent covering Mr Thomson's other legal expenses, taking the amount paid by the ALP to $348,366.87.

Party officials have told the Sydney Morning Herald that if Labor had not footed Mr Thomson's bills, he would have become a bankrupt, disqualifying him from being an MP and sparking a by-election that would have brought about the fall of the minority Gillard government.

The ALP is expected to reveal its financial arrangements with Mr Thomson at its annual state conference in July, following pressure from NSW senator John Faulkner.

Mr Thomson had sued Fairfax Media for publishing in April 2009 allegations that he used union funds to pay for prostitutes and his election campaign when he ran the Health Services Union between 2002 and 2007.

He was preselected again by Labor for the NSW central coast seat of Dobell, ahead of the 2010 election, and was re-elected with a swing towards him.

After withdrawing his action against Fairfax Media, the Gillard government came under pressure to sideline Mr Thomson, who denies the corruption allegations levelled against him.

NSW Labor had retained law firm Holding Redlich to defend Mr Thomson until he was sidelined from the ALP in late April.

In September 2011, the party's finance committee passed a motion unanimously endorsing the payment of Mr Thomson's legal costs, as Fair Work Australia continued its investigation into him.

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