AWU’s document refusal ‘triggered raids’

The AWU headquarters were raided after officials refused a request to hand over Bill Shorten-era donation documents.

Bill Shorten in question time yesterday. Picture: AAP

The Australian Workers Union’s headquarters in Sydney and Melbourne were raided after officials refused a request to hand over documents related to big donations the union made when Bill Shorten was in charge, it was claimed last night.

The revelation came as the AWU pressed aggressive legal ­action to shut down the investigation by the Registered Organisations Commission into the union donations — despite public claims it was willing to co-operate.

And, in an embarrassment for the government, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash faced calls from Labor to resign last night after it was revealed that one of her staffers leaked word of the AFP raids on the AWU national and Victorian offices before they occurred to two journalists. TV cameras and reporters were in place to see police arrive.

The AFP raids went ahead after the commission said it had ­received information AWU documents were at risk of being concealed or destroyed. Registered Organisations Commissioner Mark Bielecki last night said the information came from a “caller” to a staff member. He would not say whether or not the caller was anonymous.

In a Senate estimates committee hearing yesterday, Senator Cash denied she or her office was responsible for any deliberate government leak to the media to maximise political damage on Labor’s leader. But last night, she told the Senate her senior media adviser, David De Garis, had ­admitted to the leak and resigned.

Mr Bielecki told Senate estimates the AWU had been asked to hand over documents voluntarily in August. He said that, if the union, through its lawyers, had complied, he might not have had to proceed to an investigation and pursue the raids. “Had they voluntarily complied with that request and gave us that information it could well be the case that this matter did not need to progress either to an ­inquiry under the act or an investigation under the act, which is where the matter currently stands,” Mr Bielecki said.

 

Earlier yesterday, AWU ­national secretary Daniel Walton said the union was “co-operating before we ended up in this remarkable situation yesterday”.

“For our 131 years there has not been one occasion that the AWU has not co-operated with any ­investigation, and we don’t have any, any ideas of changing that,” Mr Walton told ABC radio.

A day after the simultaneous police raids on AWU headquarters, lawyers for the union sought a declaration in the Federal Court to quash a decision by the commission to ­investigate a $100,000 AWU ­donation to GetUp!, and others to Labor candidates including Mr Shorten.

The union also sought, as an ­alternative, an injunction prohibiting the Australian Federal Police from giving any further effect to warrants issued by a judge that precipitated the raids. If the union is successful, the AFP would be ­required to return all seized documents, and the ­commission would be prevented from accessing any information about the AWU ­donations.

Mr Bielecki said last night the commission’s investigation was into the AWU, not Mr Shorten. Earlier, the government came under attack in parliament over the raid, with allegations Malcolm Turnbull’s office or Senator Cash was responsible.

Labor frontbenchers gave their full backing to Mr Shorten, claiming the investigation by the ­commission was a politically motivated “witch-hunt”. They also stepped up attacks on the government over the raids, ­accusing the Prime Minister of using police for political purposes at a time when polls suggested the Coalition would lose the next election.

The AWU legal action ­yesterday came as it was revealed Mr Shorten had retained prominent lawyer Leon Zwier last month to provide pro-bono legal advice, ­according to an updated parliament register of his interests.

Mr Zwier represented Mr Shorten for free during the 2015 royal commission into union corruption when his behaviour as the AWU’s former national and Victorian secretary was first subject to scrutiny.

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The ROC yesterday agreed not to receive documents seized during the AFP raids until a further Federal Court hearing tomorrow. In an application filed with the court, the AWU sought to have the commission ­investigation declared invalid and the AFP return documents seized in the raids.

Mr Walton said the minutes of the AWU national executive meeting that discussed the donations to GetUp! were among the documents seized by the AFP during the raids. He said there was documentary proof that the ­national executive approved the donations in line with the union’s rules. But he said he would not ­release the minutes while the matter was before the Federal Court.

He said the declarations to the Australian Electoral Commission of the two $50,000 donations to GetUp! were among documents submitted to the trade union royal commission. Mr Walton said executive members had supported making the $100,000 donation after GetUp!’s US founder, MoveOn.org, had made separate presentations to the national executive, and to the union’s Victorian branch executive.

Mr Walton yesterday ­released a document showing the AWU’s Victorian branch, via Mr Shorten’s successor, Cesar Melhem, made a declaration to the AEC on December 20, 2006, which confirmed it had donated $50,000 to GetUp! A further document ­released by Mr Walton shows the national office of the AWU, when Mr Shorten was still national secretary, made a declaration on January 19, 2007, that it had ­donated $50,000 to GetUp! The AEC declarations are the AWU’s first public admission that it did give a total of $100,000 to GetUp!

The release of the AEC declarations does not answer whether the AWU followed legal requirements that its national and state branch executives formally approve any donations above $1000. It also remains unclear whether the AWU’s national executive gave formal approval to donations of $25,000 to Mr Shorten’s election campaign in 2007, and two others of $25,000 and $20,000 to other AWU-backed candidates. The only known approval at this stage is a blanket resolution passed by the AWU’s national executive in November 2006 that said requests for donations to candidates would be “left in the hands of Mr Shorten”.

Additional reporting: Tessa Akerman