The Craig Thomson debacle just got a whole lot more serious for the Gillard government, with his former union referring the allegations of misappropriations of funds to pay for prostitutes to NSW Police.

The Health Services Union — now led by Thomson’s “sworn enemy” Kathy Jackson — handed over material to police, encouraging the likelihood of a full police investigation. If criminally convicted, it could force a byelection in Thomson’s electorate of Dobell and could bring down the precarious Gillard government.

Allegations against Thomson continued to build with Steve Lewis and Andrew Clennell in the Herald Sun reporting they had documents that confirm Thomson withdrew more than $100,000 from his union credit card with authorisation:

“The Herald Sun can reveal between 2002 and 2007, Mr Thomson allegedly withdrew hundreds of dollars at a time using a Mastercard senior union sources say was unknown to national executive.

During a three-week trip to the US, Britain and France in May 2004, Mr Thomson allegedly went through $4724.”

An escort agency in Melbourne told Cameron Stewart at The Australian that a “Craig Thomson” booked in their services on two occasions in 2005 and 2006 and the mobile phone number used in the booking was the same number used by Thomson when he was in the union. However, the agency had no financial records kept, the key issue in the Thomson scandal.

The NSW Police Mike Gallacher is also being accused by his political counterpart of interfering with the supposedly non-partisan police as Gallacher called NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione to discuss a possible criminal investigation, reports Sean Nicholls in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Now is the time for Labor MPs to fight, because the opposition are pushing this for purely political reasons, says Shaun Carney in The Age:

“Its minority status notwithstanding, the government should have juiced up its approach long ago. Until Albanese launched into the rag-tag bunch of truckies on Monday, Labor seemed to want everyone to believe that its only detractors were inside the Coalition party room. The only saving grace of the Thomson affair is that it gives government MPs a single point from which to dig in and defend themselves.”

A forgetful Labor MP left behind their daily “cheat sheet” in parliament, a document which outlines the suggested political spin to be given when questioned by the opposition on a particular issue. As Michelle Grattan reported in The Age:

“If quizzed on a report that Mr Thomson lobbied a business to give his former wife a job, the answer was: ‘I’m not across the details, but it seems to me I haven’t seen many weaker front pages in my time.’

Then, ‘if pushed’: ‘His ex-wife didn’t get the job, so I’m not sure there’s much to talk about here.’

On whether enough work was done in checking out Mr Thomson before the election: ‘Craig is a hard worker for his local community. Obviously that’s a big factor in preselections.'”

Remember that sheet next time you watch question time.

But will the Gillard government be brought down by an idiot? It’s possible, declares Paul Sheehan in The Sydney Morning Herald:

“Crimes have been committed that can bring down the Gillard government, and they are dumb crimes. As a former NSW chief of detectives told me: ‘We are ultimately dealing with the crimes of a fool, whomever that fool may be, who has left a documented trail like a bleeding elephant in a snowfield.'”

The Thomson saga is no fairy tale, but yesterday’s parliament read like The Emperor’s New Clothes, marvels Tony Wright in The Age:

“It’s an alarming prospect, of course, but the level of of pomposity, hypocrisy and vainglorious pretension on display yesterday fairly cried out for the clear-eyed innocence of a child to point out that ‘they’re not wearing any clothes’.”

Annabel Crabb at the ABC is sick of the ridiculous drama being played out by both sides, saying this debacle has reached its FFS (For F-cks Sake) moment:

“As happens so often with political scandals, this one has jumped the shark. The furious over-prosecution of side issues obscures the only issue about which anyone sensible should give a damn: did this man use, for private use, funds that were not his to use? That is the only proper question of moral turpitude here.”