The intervention has been cautiously supported by the Australian Council of Trade Unions as a ''circuit-breaker'' but has been dismissed by the Coalition as ''too little, too late''.

This morning, Mr Shorten said he would apply to the Federal Court to appoint an administrator to the scandal-plagued HSU East Branch, which has been embroiled in power struggles between union leaders and faces allegations of corruption and nepotism.

Mr Shorten described the bid as ''grave'' and ''extremely rare'' and stressed that the government had not taken the decision lightly.

''I am particularly concerned that the interests of HSU members across Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT are not being properly served by the current dysfunction within the HSU East Branch,'' Mr Shorten said in a statement.

The government has until close of business next Monday to file its application with the court.

It is understood that the federal government has never intervened in a union to force it into administration before. Mr Shorten said he believed the application was ''soundly based'' but that if it was unsuccessful the government would look at other options.

This afternoon, opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said Mr Shorten's Federal Court move was ''too little too late'' and accused the government of double standards.

Senator Abetz questioned why the government had not decided to take any action against Labor MP Craig Thomson, who is accused of misusing union funds while presiding over the HSU as national secretary from 2002 to 2007, before he entered Parliament.

''What Labor is not prepared to do is apply the same standard to the Health Services Union representative in the Parliament, Mr Thomson,'' he told reporters in Melbourne today.

Senator Abetz added that the member for Dobell should be ''stood down''.

''To use the term, he should be put into administration as well,'' Senator Abetz said.

Nationals leader Warren Truss went one step further by urging the government to put itself into administration.

''Let's not stop there, Bill. If the basis is the scandal-ridden union has ceased to function effectively, surely the Gillard government should be placed in administration too,'' Mr Truss said in a statement this morning.

HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson described Mr Shorten's application as a ''a cheap political stunt''.

Ms Jackson said that she supported an administrator being brought in but did not appreciate the late-notice political intervention.

''It's very predictable; we've been calling for intervention for a while now. The union is in crisis. We're in court trying to sort this out,'' Ms Jackson said.

ACTU president Ged Kearney said the peak union body would not normally welcome such an intervention but said the HSU's East Branch had reached a point of ''serious dysfunctionality'' and needed a circuit-breaker.

Ms Kearney accepted Mr Shorten's move with the caveats that that the administrator was only appointed to the East Branch of the HSU and that it was done in the ''absolute interest of the HSU East members''.

This comes as the opposition insists that a Fair Work Australia report into the national office of the HSU is publicly released.

A Senate committee has requested that FWA pass on the results of its three-year-plus investigation into the HSU and whether Mr Thomson misused union funds when he was national secretary.

Mr Thomson's lawyers have written to the committee, which is due to receive the report within weeks, to argue it should not release material that will prejudice court proceedings.

Today, Senator Abetz said it was a ''weak argument'' and noted a similar report into the HSU's Victoria No.1 branch had been released by the Senate committee last month.

Mr Shorten acknowledged that people were interested in the findings and were frustrated at the length of time the Fair Work investigation had taken. But he said he would not support the report's release if it compromised any resulting legal action.

''I will not put at risk any possible civil or criminal charges by interfering in this last stage,'' he said.

''This is the least that I can do on behalf of the HSU members who have had to put up with so much for so long.''

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