The Liberals withdrew on Wednesday a motion to suspend embattled crossbencher MP Craig Thomson from the Australian Parliament. Christopher Payne, the manager of Opposition business, initially sought the suspension of Mr Thomson for 14 days and a possible longer suspension following Mr Thomson's statement of Parliament on Monday.

Prior to the withdrawal of the censure motion, the MPs were expected to tackle the appropriate punishment for Mr Thomson who was found by a Fair Work Australia (FWA) investigation to have misused $500,000 of Health Services Union (HSU) funds when he headed the union.

Mr Pyne said he withdrew the motion because it was superfluous since the privileges committee, which meets Wednesday night, is slated to probe Mr Thomson's statement in which he accused his successor, Kathy Jackson, or orchestrating the charges against him.

The motion was proposed by independent MP Rob Oakeshott due to the alleged lack of full co-operation by Mr Thomson with state and federal investigating bodies, and the damage he has caused to the public confidence and trust in the Australian Parliament.

However, despite Mr Pyne's move, the Opposition asked the privileges committee to talk to witnesses to check if the embattled MP misled parliament. The committee is tasked with studying the FWA report, Mr Thomson's statements and to find out who is telling the truth.

Mr Pyne said the committee would call Mr Thomson, Ms Jackson, HSU East official Marco Bolano and FWA investigator Terry Nassios to verify their statements.

Leader of the House Anthony Albanese said it is not proper to censure Mr Thomson because the privileges committee is still investigating the charges.

Despite the matter under the privileges committee, Mr Oakeshott said the selection committee would tackle the censure motion on May 29.

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