May 16, 2013 - 7:40AM
Suspended Labor MP Craig Thomson will contest his NSW seat at the next election as an independent.
The Dobell MP is expected to quit the Labor party on Thursday.
''I can't in all good conscience contest this election as a Labor party candidate,'' Mr Thomson told ABC radio on Thursday.
''I will be standing as an independent.''
Mr Thomson is contesting civil and criminal charges relating to his alleged misuse of Health Services Union member funds when he was the union's national secretary.
The allegations saw Mr Thomson's suspension from the ALP.
''I will be standing as a left-of-centre independent ... someone with Labor values but someone who is very frustrated with the way this government has gone about things,'' Mr Thomson told a News Limited newspaper.
''I have been a member of the party for more than 20 years. But the Labor party today is not the party I joined.
''They have got to finish things. You can't be a reforming government, you can't try and change people's lives by making announcements. You have to complete the policies.''
Denying he felt bitter toward the ALP for the way he has been treated, Mr Thomson cast a shadow over the party's leadership.
''This won't please some of my colleagues when I say it . . . but people including Labor party members may greatly fear Tony Abbott as prime minister but there are great reservations about the leadership of the Labor party,'' he said.
Mr Thomson's exit means Labor will need to endorse a new candidate for the marginal NSW Central Coast seat of Dobell, where polls have put the incumbent ahead of the Coalition.
In October Mr Thomson was ahead of the opposition 51 to 49 on a two-party preferred basis.
Mr Thomson won the seat in 2007 from Liberal member Ken Ticehurst.
AAP
