Thomson gets reprimand over speech

Former Labor MP Craig Thomson faces a reprimand but no other penalty over a 2012 speech in which he was accused of deliberately misleading parliament.

The parliament's privileges committee on Thursday released its report into the matter after a two-year inquiry into the former Health Services Union secretary.

"The committee considers that an appropriate penalty would be for the House to reprimand Mr Thomson for his conduct," committee chairman Russell Broadbent told parliament.

The committee acknowledged Mr Thomson's "difficult personal situation" since the allegations about him first arose in the context of the HSU exit audit in 2007-8 and led to a series of investigations, reports and court cases.

"In recommending punishment, the committee considers these difficulties to be a mitigating factor in what it now recommends," the report said, rejecting a finding of contempt which could have involved a fine or jail.

In a response to the report, Mr Thomson offered an apology "for pointing out that Michael Williamson, Kathy Jackson and her partner Mr Lawler, and Marco Bolano were all likely to be crooks".

"As I have discovered, parliament doesn't want to hear the truth, instead preferring the lies and deceit of modern party politics.

"Whilst I stand by every word of my speech, I understand that parliament having issued a formal apology to Kathy Jackson, Michael Lawler, Michael Williamson and Marco Bolano needed to keep true to their discredited version of events."

Since Mr Thomson's speech, Williamson has been jailed for defrauding the HSU and Jackson faces a Victorian police investigation over her alleged misuse of HSU money.

Mr Lawler quit his post on March 3 as a report found cause for his dismissal from the Fair Work Commission over misbehaviour and incapacity.

Mr Thomson himself was found in the Federal Court last September to have spent more than $300,000 of HSU members' funds to pay for prostitutes and his campaign to be elected to the federal seat of Dobell.

He maintained his innocence through the proceedings.