The activities of three now-disgraced former Health Services Union bosses provide a "sorry history of misappropriation and deceit", according to a damning assessment tendered to the royal commission into trade union corruption.
Senior management operated with "a sense of complete entitlement", said counsel assisting the commission, which recommended on Friday that commissioner Dyson Heydon make findings against former HSU officials Kathy Jackson and Craig Thomson.
The submission from counsel assisting recommended Mr Heydon make findings that reflect that Ms Jackson and Mr Thomson, both of whom served as the union's national secretary, and former national president Michael Williamson had been "personally responsible" for the misappropriation of more than $2.4 million of HSU money.
The submission also notes Victoria Police, operating independently but in support of the commission, is undertaking a criminal investigation into Ms Jackson's activities while at the union.
The submission from counsel assisting will be used to inform Mr Heydon's final report, to be published by December 31.
The HSU has undergone many difficulties and tribulations in recent years, counsel assisting said, most of them centring on the actions of the three disgraced officials.
All three have faced allegations of misappropriation of union funds that have been the subject of criminal and civil investigations and proceedings.
Williamson, who is now in jail, was accused of defrauding the HSU and Unions NSW through the provision of false invoices to the amount of $938,000, the submission notes.
In the case of Mr Thomson, the submission said allegations had resulted in criminal charges concerning misuse of HSU funds for personal expenses, for which he was convicted of counts with a total value of $24,000, reduced to $5650 on appeal.
Ms Jackson has faced civil proceedings in which she was ordered to pay compensation to the HSU of more than $1.4 million.
"It is further submitted in overview that this sorry history of misappropriation and deceit was facilitated by a culture then pervasive at the HSU, in which senior management operated with a sense of complete entitlement in respect of the use of members' money and at the same time without being subject to proper control or supervision," the submission states.
Mr Thomson's "wrongdoing" fell into two categories: causing the HSU to pay for personal expenses; and causing the HSU to pay for, and to deploy its resources in aid of, his campaign for election to the federal Central Coast seat of Dobell.
"The manner in which Craig Thomson caused the HSU to contribute funds and resources towards his ultimate success at the 2007 federal election is not cured by any suggestion that the HSU might have been pleased at that outcome," counsel assisting said.
Mr Thomson acted in a way that benefited his own ambitions rather than some broader political object of the HSU, and caused the union to avoid any proper disclosure of the manner in which members' funds were deployed for political purposes, counsel said.
"The effect of this was not only to expose the union to penalties for breaches of the disclosure laws outlined above, it contained an assumption that what was good for Craig Thomson was good for the members of the HSU," counsel said.
The affected parties have until October 16 to respond to the submission.
