Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party were hit with 2 major union scandals on Friday (23/8/24) with Bill Shorten’s crime gang, at the Heath Workers Union (HWU) headed up by Diana and David Asmar, charged by the Fair Work Commission with stealing $2.82 million.

But as you will see below the true amount of the theft is closer to $24 million, but no one seems to care.

Albanese’s government on Friday also appointed Mark Irving KC to run the CFMEU for at least three years which is a major own goal given Mark Irving made $millions from the HSU when fraud and theft was rife at the Union.

Mark Irving KC is best known to the public, as per the below video, for having a “charity shag” with HSU fraudster Kathy Jackson which was exposed at the Trade Union Royal Commission in 2014.

As it turns out I was at the Trade Union Royal Commission the day the “charity shag” was exposed, and made national headlines, and I put some pertinent questions to Mark Irving and recorded it as per the second video below:

The below video is Kathy Jackson at the Trade Union Royal Commission on the 29th of August 2014. Kathy Jackson was later found guilty of fraud for stealing from the HSU for her time there. But Jackson’s fraud predated the below 2014 interview outside the Royal Commission.

At the 2 minute and 23 second mark you will hear Nine journalist Damian Ryan ask Kathy Jackson in relation to the HSU’s barrister Mark Irving, “Did it seem a little awkward, it seemed a little icy as a viewer watching you being cross examined by your former lover”.

Kathy Jackson responded “I could not believe he had the audacity to sit there and want to cross examine me, forget the former lover stuff, everyone makes mistakes and has a charity shag along the way?

Bill Shorten’s crime gang of Diana and David Asmar and Andrew Landeryou and his now deceased wife former Senator Kimberley Kitching in 2012 took over the HSU Victoria Number 1 branch and were busily stealing members money which was exposed to some degree at the Royal Commission.

Bill Shorten, as Labor leader, made a captains pick in 2016 and had his good friend Kimberley Kitching appointed as a federal Senator to replace Senator Stephen Conroy. (Click here to read more)

At the 10 minute and 35 second mark you will hear Shane Dowling (me) say “Kathy, one last question” and I ask her “Based on the evidence earlier in the week by Diana Asmar and Kimberley Kitching it’s fairly obvious that fraud and theft is still happening at the HSU Victoria Number 1 branch. What do you think should happen there?

(Click here to watch the above video on the KCA YouTube channel)

Kathy Jackson blew the whistle in 2011 on Michael Williamson and former federal MP Craig Thomson for stealing from the HSU. A Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption was set up to investigate.

The HSU started leaking material to the media, which I was told came from Michael Williamson, showing Kathy Jackson was involved in fraud and theft at the HSU and “HSU branch secretary Craig McGregor, who in 2012 left his job as a radiographer after being elected to head the branch that Ms Jackson used to lead” also started blowing the whistle on Kathy Jackson.

The fight between Kathy Jackson, Michael Williamson, Craig Thomson and Bill Shorten etc was like an internal Mafia fight where they all want control of the Mafia’s cashflow for their own corrupt purposes.

Most Unions have 1 state branch and a National committee overseeing the state branches. For some reason the HSU in Victoria have 4 branches while the other states either have 1 branch each and some states are combined under 1 branch.

Kathy Jackson controlled the HSU Victoria No. 3 branch when she was ripping it off. Bill Shorten’s crime gang have controlled the HSU Victoria No. 1 branch since 2012 and changed it’s trading name to the Health Workers Union (HWU) in 2014 and have been ripping it off since day one.

Mark Irving KC outside the Trade Union Royal Commission (28-8-14) with Shane Dowling (me) in the background (on the right) holding an iPhone with the KCA logo on my jumper.

Bill Shorten’s crime gang charged by the Fair Work Commission

On Friday (23/8/24) morning it was reported:

A senior official at the Health Workers Union has called for the organisation to stand down its secretary Diana Asmar, claiming the branch is dysfunctional, that memberships may be inflated, staff have been underpaid and scores of pay deals have not been finalised.

On Friday, the national executive for the Health Services Union will consider whether it should take legal action to put the Victorian branch – known as the HWU – into administration. (Click here to read more)

Then by Friday afternoon it was reported:

The Fair Work Commission has launched legal action against Health Workers Union boss Diana Asmar, alleging she approved payment of more than $2.7 million to a printing business and got cash back.

The commission filed civil proceedings against Asmar, her husband, David Asmar, and five senior members of the HWU executive team in the Federal Court on Friday.

“The alleged conduct, which occurred between 2016 and 2021, significantly impacted the branch’s finances and the ability of the branch to serve the best interests of its members,” the commission said in a statement. (Click here to read more)

Recommended for criminal charges by the Trade Union Royal Commission

On the 18th of July 2024 I published an article titled “PM Anthony Albanese in crisis mode after decades of Union corruption exposed. Again!” which has a list of people who were recommended for criminal charges by the Royal Commission in 2014:

List of HSU Union Officials & employees looking at jail time published by the Trade Union Royal Commission #turc

HSU  Victorian Number 1 Branch: Secretary Diana Asmar – General Manager Kimberley Kitching – Union Organiser David Eden – Union Organiser Darryn Rowe – Union Organiser Lee Atkinson – Union Organiser Sasha Trajcevski-Uzunov – Union Organiser Nick Katsis – The alleged offences relate to giving false information when they applied for Right of Entry Permits (Click here to read more) (Click here to read the article)

You can see some of the same names of people recommended for criminal charges in 2014 by the Royal Commission who have now been accused by the Fair Work Commission of fraud with their filing in the Federal Court on Friday (23/8/24).

The fraud and theft at the HSU / HWU have been known for years

On the 18th of February 2015 I published an article titled “Bill Shorten’s supporters involved in multi-million-$ fraud at the HSU” which starts off:

It has been well known for a long time that Bill Shorten’s crime gang led by Diana Asmar, David Asmar, Kimberley Kitching and Andrew Landeryou have been ripping off the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch (known as the Health Workers Union).

But now we have the financial report that shows the $millions they have been stealing and rorting from some of the lowest paid workers in the country.

The financial report is on their website for the 2013/14 year but has only been dated on the 2 February 2015 for some reason. (Click here to read the report)

I am not an accountant but even I can see the evidence of the scams they were running. For example, wages in the 2013 financial year were $1,820,807 and blew out to $3,451,989 in the 2014 financial year. This is a massive increase of $1,631,182 and consistent with the fact that we knew that Asmar and crew were employing Labor Party and Union cronies to work at the union.

In practice they did very little work except to collect their pay. A prime example would be Kitching who was employed as General Manager on a package of about $120,000 yet did very little if anything. She has since left I understand trying to avoid the criminal charges that were recommended against her by the Royal Commission.

I have been told in the last few months up to 13 staff have been sacked as the Branch is rapidly running out of money and has very few assets left to sell to keep them going.

On paper it says they made a $735,745 profit for the 2014 year but in fact they really made a loss when the sale of their building is taken into account. The building was sold, without the approval of members, for a reported profit of $2,238,012 but if Andrew Landeryou was involved it is highly likely that some profit was skimmed off the top.

Take the $2,238,012 profit from the sale of the building out of the 2014 finances and the reported $735,745 profit becomes a $1,502,267 loss. This financial year they have no building to sell so that is why they have been sacking staff to try and avoid bankruptcy. They have been selling assets to fleece the union and its members.

I have only dealt with a few issues from the accounts but the whole financial report needs to be forensically audited by fraud experts. Other expenses like legal went from $57,000 to $256,000, printing went from $55,000 to $205,000 and Catering and Entertainment went from $9,988 to $63,275. My guess is that the real fraud and theft is easily at least 3 to 4 $million. (Click here to read more)

A year later, on the 28th of February 2016, I published an article titled “Bill Shorten’s supporters given warning by federal authority to stop stealing from HSU members” which says:

This website has been writing about the current fraud and theft going on at the Health Services Union for over 3 years and this week the Fair Work Commission (FWC) finally stepped in with a written warning regarding possible legal action if the stealing doesn’t stop.

Bill Shorten’s supporters and friends Diana & David Asmar, Andrew Landeryou and his wife Kimberley Kitching make Craig Thomson and Kathy Jackson look like amateurs when it comes to stealing from low paid union members but that doesn’t worry Mr Shorten.

The FWC warning relates to the multi-million-dollar fraud at the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch which is clearly shown by the financial records and resulted in a $1.7 million loss in the 2015 financial year which came after a $1.5 million loss in the 2014 financial year. (Click here to read the article which has further financial analysis of the fraud)

Interesting that in 2015 and 2016 I published detailed articles about the fraud at the HWU, including the printing going from $55,000 to $205,000 which is relevant to the current charges, yet the Fair Work Commission only charged them on Friday (23/8/24) which is 10 years after it was known publicly.

Everyone has known for over 10 years of the fraud and theft at the HSU / HWU but no one has done anything until now. Why?

And the real fraud and theft, that I detailed in the 2015 and 2016 articles linked above, would really be closer to $24 million at a realistic estimate of $2 million per year since 2012. Not the $2.82 million that the Fair Work Commission has hit them with because that is only for the printing scam when there are dozens of more scams.

A couple of HWU scams I wrote about in November 2022 in an article titled “Premier Dan Andrews, Immigration consultant Nick Katsis, the $20 million HSU fraud and the IBAC corruption investigation” which starts off:

Corruption in Victoria under Premier Dan Andrews is so open and blatant that Immigration Consultant Nick Katsis has been in the business for 15 years, since 2007, and since 2012/13 he has also received over $100,000 a year as a full-time official at the Health Workers Union. (Click here to read the article)

Yep, the same Nick Katsis who is one of the people sued by the Fair Work Commission on Friday (23/8/24) as per above. And yes, he still works as an Immigration Consultant while collecting his HWU reddies.

All politicians on all sides of politics have known about the HSU / HWU fraud and theft for years. All the media have known. All the managers at the other branches of the HSU have known.

But because they are part of Bill Shorten’s crime gang they have been protected, until now. I wonder what has changed. Maybe the powers that be saw the writing on the wall with what is happening at the CFMEU.

Mark “charity shag” Irving KC

The below video was taken on the 28th of August 2014 outside the Trade Union Royal Commission in Sydney. 

The SMH reported at the time:

Health Services Union whistleblower Kathy Jackson delayed the royal commission into union corruption for more than an hour after she asked for a barrister to be stopped from cross-examining her because she had sex with him more than 20 years ago.

Ms Jackson submitted a statement outlining her sexual history with Mark Irving, SC, who was scheduled to cross-examine her about her alleged misuse of union funds on behalf of the Health Services Union.

Commissioner Dyson Heydon rejected the submission and questioned the relevance of the the sexual relationship, which took place in 1992.

“What do someone’s personal relationships with A in 1992 have to do with the personal relationships with B in the 21st century?” he said.

He said the chronology of events surrounding Ms Jackson’s objection to Mr Irving “undermines the credibility of the application”.

He said if Ms Jackson “really had the fears and beliefs about Mr Irving that she claims to have, she would have protested at the time when Mr Irving first announced his appearance” and this was not done. (Click here to read more)

As you will see in the below video, I asked Mark Irving why he took the brief (represented the HSU) given he had previously had a sexual relationship with Kathy Jackson and he knew he would have to cross examine her at the Royal Commission.

As part of the evidence tendered by Kathy Jackson, she said that Mark Irving had a barber’s chair in his lounge room and that they had sex on it. That is why you will hear a journalist in the below video ask Mark Irving if he still has the barber’s chair.

(Click here to watch the above video on the KCA YouTube channel)

Mark Irving never did explain why he took the brief to represent the HSU at the Royal Commission even though he had a conflict of interest given his past relationship with Kathy Jackson.

Mark Irving KC was paid $millions when the HSU / HWU was up to its neck in corruption and the HSU / HWU are still up to their necks in corruption so Mark Irving KC is one of the last people you would want to run the CFMEU.

Mark Irving’s appointment to run the CFMEU has Bill Shorten’s fingerprints all over it and it’s a major fail.

Everyone on all sides of politics had an opportunity to deal with the CFMEU and HSU / HWU after the Royal Commission, but no one did. Now it has come back to bite the Labor Party and Union movement less than 12 months out from a federal election.

There are a lot of moving parts to the matters above so that is it for now, so I don’t overload you with information in one article. But before the federal election I will write more about the above the matters.

This website is a must follow if you want to know the background and ins and outs about what is really happening within the 2 Union scandals above because I have been reporting on the matters for over 10 years. I know the HSU / HWU issues better than the CFMEU issues but as you can see above the 2 issues have now overlapped with Mark Irving’s appointment to run the CFMEU.

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