15:00 AEST Fri Sep 16 2011
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The Health Services Union has cut ties with the ALP following a crisis meeting in Sydney, amid continuing allegations of corruption within the organisation.
About 100 people are believed to have been at the meeting at the union's Sydney headquarters on Friday, which included high-ranking union officials and HSU boss Michael Williamson, who participated via teleconference.
"There is a perceived conflict of interest between the union and the ALP," the union's NSW divisional secretary Gerard Hayes told reporters after the meeting.
"The resolution has been moved and carried that the HSU East will disaffiliate from the ALP in NSW, Victoria and the ACT."
Earlier this month, NSW police said there was no evidence for a criminal investigation into federal Labor MP Craig Thomson over the use of HSU credit cards from 2002 to 2007.
But this week NSW police launched a fresh investigation after HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson went to them with concerns about corruption in the organisation.
On Thursday, Mr Williamson denied in an interview on the union website that the union was in crisis, saying it was "in a fine position".
It was reported by Fairfax on Friday that Mr Williamson failed to disclose that his son was using a building owned by the union to run a business.
Mr Williamson was reportedly called on to resign at the meeting on Friday morning but refused to do so.
It's believed he called NSW Labor General Secretary Sam Dastyari after the meeting to inform him of the union's decision.
Mr Dastyari then tweeted: "I have just been notified that the HSU have just disaffiliated from the Australian Labor Party."
Ms Jackson is understood to have voted against the resolution to cut ties with the ALP.
In a statement given to reporters after the meeting, Mr Hayes conceded it had been a "difficult period" for the HSU.
"The union looks forward to setting the record straight following the barrage of inaccurate, misguided and misinformed media reports," the statement said.
Mr Hayes also said the union had made a number of resolutions to prepare for strike force Carnarvon's investigation into allegations of corruption within the organisation.
A representative body will keep union members informed about the progress of the investigation while John Grayson, former deputy president of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, has been appointed as a union ombudsman.
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