Senator Michaelia Cash grilled as union inquiry chief declines to justify police paper chase
EMBATTLED Employment Minister Michaelia Cash fended off a brutal round of questioning in Senate estimates yesterday as she faced the fallout of a police raid on union offices.
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EMBATTLED Employment Minister Michaelia Cash fended off a brutal round of questioning in Senate estimates yesterday as she faced the fallout of a police raid on union offices.
Ms Cash’s grilling came as the head of the government body investigating Australian Workers’ Union donations declined to explain why he ordered the raid instead of formally requesting the documents
The Registered Organisations Commission sent a letter to the AWU and later decided on the raid despite the union having always complied with previous demands to produce documents.
But the ROC’s executive director Chris Enright refused to explain why he had decided on a raid instead of a formal request for evidence, and said it was “inappropriate to respond any further given the Federal Court proceedings”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday stood by Senator Cash amid Labor demands she be sacked over “misleading” statements made to the Senate over the raids. Hours earlier Ms Cash revealed a member of her staff had resigned after admitting to tipping off some media about the impending raids.
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She said yesterday she had not considered resigning, denying her staff “took a bullet” for her, as the investigation into the misuse of union members’ cash blew up in the government’s face.
In a fiery question time, Mr Turnbull lashed Labor leader Bill Shorten as a “wholly owned subsidiary of the (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) … cashed up and powerful, that defies the law”. He accused Mr Shorten of distracting from the investigation.
Mr Turnbull said Ms Cash had “acted entirely properly”.
“A minister is accountable for what she says and her obligation is to speak the truth,” he said.
“She was misled, as she said. And once her staff told her the truth and made the admission that he had done the wrong thing, she corrected the record.”
The ROC is investigating allegedly improper payments from the AWU to GetUp! in 2006, when Mr Shorten was the union’s national secretary, and whether a $25,000 donation to his own election campaign was signed off correctly.
Mr Shorten was also a director of the left-wing activist group at the time of the $100,000 donation.
The ROC said the raid was necessary because it had heard from a source there was a risk evidence would be altered or destroyed. The AWU will front a Melbourne court today, however, in an attempt to quash the probe.
Labor is demanding Mr Turnbull sack Ms Cash for misleading the Senate.
But a string of cabinet ministers backed Ms Cash. “The reality is that ministers aren’t telepathic. Michaelia Cash did not know about the actions of the staff member,” Social Services Minister Christian Porter said.
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