Marco Bolano, the loyal foot-soldier to corruption whistleblower Kathy Jackson, used his closing comments to the Royal Commission into unions this week to make that plea on behalf of his mentor and close ally.

Jackson, the charismatic daughter of working-class Greek migrants, rose to national prominence as the fearless whistleblower revealing endemic corruption in the Health Services Union.

Her exposures contributed to the jailing of Michael Williamson, a former ALP national president and senior HSU leader. Former federal MP and HSU national secretary Craig Thomson, who used his union credit card on prostitutes, was also pursued by Jackson. He is appealing a three-month jail sentence.

Jackson’s bravery in speaking out revealed the shameful stealing of HSU funds, a union that represents some of Australia’s lowest paid workers. Tony Abbott has described her as ‘‘heroic’’ yet the idea of Jackson, the ‘’whistleblower’’, had always jarred with those who know her as an active factional player in the winner-takes-all-culture of the Labor Party. It's a background not dissimilar to the people she had exposed.

And as the week’s Royal Commission hearings progressed – and allegations around the misuse of union funds were tendered against Jackson this time –  just who the whistleblower was and who was being accused of rampant corruption was unclear.

Jackson was revealed to have engaged in practices that, even on the most generous interpretation, could be described as questionable.

Thousands of dollars of union members' money was stored in what Jackson called her ‘’little steel box’’ to be distributed by her personally.

She also could not explain where tens of thousands of dollars from her slush fund, the National Health Development Account, had gone.

Asked about withdrawals ranging from $3500 to as much as $50,000 Jackson said she could not recall what the money had been spent on because her only records of the spending were kept in an exercise book that had now gone missing. She also admitted that some of the smaller amounts withdrawn from the unaudited fund were for her own personal use.

Her opponents wryly noted Jackson was using Craig Thomson’s defence to justify some of her spending, namely she had authorisation from her committee of management.

Acting national secretary of the HSU Chris Brown, who is pursuing Jackson through civil action, said the defence was ridiculous. ‘‘Ms Jackson’s claim that because the practices were ‘approved’ by the branch committee of management it made them OK is nonsensical. The Pope could have approved them and it would still not make it right.’’

The damaging disclosures against Jackson led to a fraying of tempers outside – and even inside the hearing room. Bolano was in a volatile mood. He would not hear a bad word against Jackson and rounded on her opponents and journalists.

The allegations aired in the Royal Commission, even ones admitted by Jackson or her allies, were dismissed by her supporters as ‘‘smears’’.

There was a number of complaints to the Commission from attendees that Bolano had harassed and abused them. There was also a complaint to police against him from a union rival, the HSU's Kimberley Kitching, that he had spat at and intimidated her. Bolano strongly denies all of these allegations.

The combustible mood was no surprise; it was emblematic of the blood feuds that have engulfed the dysfunctional HSU for years.

It is a story of friendships and betrayal that this week has again dragged in some of the nation’s most senior Labor politicians including Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and David Feeney. Shorten was accused by his once close friend Jackson of being involved in branch stacking and that he had been part of an ALP campaign to smear her. He denied both claims.

The intensity of the divides is as much personal as political. No great political or ideological feud can explain the scorched-earth battle over the HSU.

The best explanation is that it is mostly to do with factional numbers in Labor and personal ambition. It is fertile ground for the Royal Commission with a brief to look at union corruption and slush funds.

Evidence from Jackson and others this week clearly show the huge personal cost she suffered for exposing widespread corruption in the HSU. Once she exposed corruption Jackson said she was called a ‘‘rat’’, a ‘‘traitor’’ and a ‘‘Liberal prostitute’’. She broke down as she told of spending time in 2011 in a psychiatric hospital due to the unrelenting stress.

And Jackson’s decision to go public served a noble end. The rorting at the HSU was unconscionable and, in some cases, criminal.

But it is ironic that Jackson’s whistleblowing could be part of the reason her own questionable practices came to be exposed this week.

The rolling HSU scandal, sparked by Jackson’s exposures, gave added weight to the Abbott government’s decision to call a Royal Commission into union slush funds and corruption earlier this year.

In April, five key unions were told on short notice to provide detailed documents and financial records to the Commission.

Soon after, information leaked out from some of these old union records and three prominent news reports appeared in Fairfax Media that focused on Jackson's time at the HSU.

That included the exposure of her $285,000 slush fund and another report that  revealed she had been reimbursed by the HSU for more than $1 million on spending on two personal credit cards.

Another damaging story came after Bolano – who was backed by Jackson and Feeney  – confirmed his 2009 HSU election campaign had received money from tobacco company Philip Morris.

In her statement to the Commission, Jackson described the allegations in the Fairfax reports as ‘‘very damaging’’ and said they would be used to ‘‘smear’’ her.

The alleged smears against Jackson came from someone who could also be regarded as a whistleblower exposing possible mis-use of union members’ money. In evidence to the hearing on Tuesday, Craig McGregor, who now runs Jackson’s old branch, confirmed he had provided information to journalists about Jackson's conduct after the Royal Commission had asked for financial records from the union.

As a result, McGregor received intense questioning from counsel assisting the Commission, Jeremy Stoljar, about why he had spoken to the media first.

McGregor, in the murky world of the HSU, does not appear to have an obvious political agenda. He has spent his career as a radiographer and is not a member of a political party. McGregor said he run for election in 2012 dismayed at corruption in the HSU.

Jackson has sought to lump McGregor in with her other political rivals and her supporters jumped on his difficulties during the cross examination he faced in the Commission. But the serious questions about Jackson’s conduct intensified, rather than lessened, in the days after McGregor’s grilling.

Beyond the tens of thousands in unaccounted-for spending it also emerged that her slush fund was set up after a $250,000 settlement with the Peter MacCallum cancer hospital over back-pay to workers.

In written evidence, a member of the union’s committee of management, who is friendly with Jackson, said the settlement money had come from funds owed to workers themselves as it had been ‘’impossible to pay back all the money to the employees’’ .

Jackson's version of events differ, but, in either case, the $250,000 settlement, union money, formed the seed cash for her fund to be spent on her political and industrial campaigns and herself.

The drip drop of allegations in the Royal Commission, where evidence that would typically be struck out by a court as hearsay is allowed, has led to a series of damaging claims. It has hurt  both Jackson and Shorten, her once close friend but now bitter enemy.

It appears her last significant supporter in the ALP, David Feeney, has fallen out with her as well.

Senior Coalition figures also now seem more reluctant to offer her unstinting praise.

While she has been abandoned by her former comrades, she still has impassioned support from a disparate group of people such as Bolano and a ragtag bunch of former HSU officials.

Also a keen supporter is blogger and former radio host, Michael Smith. Smith, who has pursued Julia Gillard relentlessly over the 1990s AWU slush-fund affair, accompanies Jackson to many of her hearings.

Another powerful supporter is her partner, Michael Lawler, the Fair Work Commission vice-president, one of the most senior figures on the industrial tribunal.

He plays an active behind-the-scenes role in her campaigns and was angry with the media reporting this week. When he spoke to journalists there appeared not even a hint of doubt that she was still the heroic whistleblower: ‘’I am so concerned about my beloved who has been smeared beyond belief.’’