Disgraced ex-union official Kathy Jackson’s Illawarra home was raided by federal and Victorian police on Wednesday as part of a multi-agency union corruption investigation.
Through the day, uniformed and plain-clothed officers sifted through a large amount of items at the Wombarra property of the former Health Services Union boss.
She was at home at the time and seen helping officers with their investigations.
Wearing gloves, police removed items from the house as well as a shipping container in the yard and placed them in brown evidence bags as bemused teenagers from surrounding houses looked on.
A spokeswoman from Victoria Police, the lead agency on the operation, said the raid was part of the ongoing taskforce Heracles, which was formed to investigate union corruption in conjunction with the Australian Federal Police.
She said several warrants had been executed in Wombarra at a number of properties.
"Detectives from that joint taskforce have executed warrants north of Wollongong this morning, with the assistance of NSW Police,” she said.
"The warrants were executed at Wombarra and relate to a Victorian investigation.
"As it's ongoing, we're not going to be providing further comment.”
A NSW Police spokeswoman said the state agency was “assisting detectives from Victoria and the AFP with an operation".
Fairfax Media revealed in April that Jackson was one of the Heracles taskforce targets.
In August, she was ordered by the Federal Court to pay the Health Services Union more than $1.4 million she used for personal shopping, travel and her divorce and found guilty of misusing her position as head of the union to fraudulently gain financial advantage.
She is appealing the court order.
The court order came after Jackson was labelled a hero for blowing the whistle on disgraced former Labor MP Craig Thomson and corrupt union boss Michael Williamson.
In January this year, her Wombarra property was damaged by a fire, which was later deemed non-suspicious, despite initial suggestions to the contrary.
