'SHARK-JUMPING: HSU Boss Kathy Jackson Gets Wood from the Union-Busting HR Nicholls Society ' to You

'SHARK-JUMPING: HSU boss Kathy Jackson gets Wood from the union-busting HR Nicholls Society ' to you.

Here is his/her remark: They reall do love Stu

SHARK-JUMPING: HSU boss Kathy Jackson gets Wood from the union-busting HR Nicholls Society Posted By VEXNEWS On April 13, 2012 (18:17) In Federal Government , Labor , Liberals , Unions & IR

In an astonishing move, a leading Melbourne union-busting barrister Stuart Wood, who is a former vice-president and board member of the HR Nicholls Society, has emerged as the HSU’s chief crook Kathy Jackson’s lawyer, on a pro bono basis.

Wood is not merely a barrister either but is probably one of the best union-busting advocates in the land, normally charging as much as $12,000 a day, often for clients of the highly regarded big bad boss employer firm Freehills, whose collection of art on its walls often inspired me to think that their clients were being extremely generous payers (to their lawyers if not their workers). Our visits there were purely for social or intelligence-gathering reasons.

VEXNEWS thinks Mr Wood is not such a bad bloke but we would suggest that he consider adopting less toxic pro bono causes, perhaps that of Hugo Chavez or one of Gaddafi’s offspring, because they will cause him less grief in the end.

In short, associating with Jackson’s image as a Joan of Arc figure is probably not going to be a good look for Wood, once and possibly still an aspiring politician, if continued, forensic probing of HSU accounts, including Jackson’s old branch the HSU #3 branch, reveal her to be a thief and money launderer, as alleged by former employee Ruth Kershaw, for example.

Wood recently emerged as an interested person in the HSU case, advising Liberal shadow minister Eric Abetz on the legalities on the release of the Fair Work Australia report.

We didn’t pay too much attention to that, figuring Stuart was doing a bit of freelance freedom- fighting for the Liberal cause. We’re not sure that he’s a member of the Liberal party but given his work in the union-busting, free-marketeering HR Nicholls Society and views we would describe as refreshingly libertarian, the only reason he wouldn’t have joined was on the basis that the Victorian division is wholly too statist.

Liking him as we do, we worry that Wood has adopted not so much a fool for a client in Ms Jackson but a knave well beyond his naive Tory understanding of what really goes on in some trade unions. The HSU has not only seen some of its members’ money allegedly paying brothels, it’s not unreasonable to say, at least in Victoria, that it has also served as a brothel, a house of perversion and wrongdoing so twisted that it has barely been capable of describing it without profanity. Believe us, there’s much more to come on the HSU, and by no means is the scandal restricted to its NSW branch, as some have persuaded themselves.

Increasingly, and Wood’s involvement as a Jackson advocate is perhaps the perfect illustration of it, the Health Services Union East branch is seen as a basket-case with many thinking it might be best for the membership to deregister HSU East, liberate its functional interstate branches like the perfectly well-functioning Victorian HACSU, distribute the remaining what’s left of its funds to long-suffering Victorian members and let them join a union without the likes of those who’ve exploited it, stolen from it and now, as Jackson has, turned it into a sick and embarrassing joke.