Thomson has become a bombing range for the Coalition since the disclosure of allegations surrounding the use of an official credit card to hire prostitutes during his pre-Parliament days as national secretary of the Health Services Union. Thomson claims the card was used by someone else under a forged signature.
The allegations are being investigated by the federal workplace relations tribunal Fair Work Australia; inquiries widened after details were handed to NSW police by shadow attorney-general George Brandis.
Yesterday police said an assessment by the fraud and cyber-crime squad had found there was no basis for a formal investigation under state laws, although material would be handed to police in Victoria, where the union has its headquarters.
Brandis was unrepentant, refusing to apologise and focusing on the alleged use of union members' money as their own by Thomson and other officials.
The Opposition will now have trouble keeping the scandal alive.
But Abbott said yesterday there was "no way" the Opposition would agree to a traditional pairing arrangement - under which one side stands down an MP to compensate for the absence of one from the other side - if Thomson wanted to attend the impending birth of his second child.
Most pressing of all for Gillard are asylum seekers and her need for a policy that stands some chance of survival in one of Australia's most bitter and sensitive political battlegrounds.
Her plan to swap 800 asylum seekers for 4000 accredited refugees collapsed with the High Court's finding that it breached migration law, a decision that legal advice provided to the Government suggests would also apply to former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard's "Pacific solution" alternatives of Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
The Labor left, the Greens and refugee, human rights and church groups oppose any bid to resurrect offshore processing, a policy axed by Labor after it won power in 2007.
But Gillard is determined to use it as a means of deterring dangerous boat voyages from Indonesia and is considering an offer by Abbott to join forces to push amendments to the Migration Act through Parliament, side-stepping the High Court ruling.
On Wednesday the Government arranged a briefing for Abbott by senior immigration officials, who are understood to have confirmed Gillard's position that offshore processing is the only solution, and that the Malaysian deal is the best option.
Abbott was also reported to have been told that Nauru and PNG alone would no longer present the deterrent of the Pacific solution days, and Indonesia would not allow Australia to turn boats back at sea.
And it is understood he was told if offshore centres were not available and processing took place on the mainland, as many as 600 asylum seekers would arrive every month, overwhelming detention facilities and creating social tinderboxes that could erupt with the violence of London and Paris.
The West Australian newspaper reported yesterday that at least five boats carrying hundreds of asylum seekers recently set sail for Australia.
Greens leader Bob Brown demanded the sacking of the "turkeys" who warned Abbott that social chaos would follow the end of offshore processing.
