Barnaby Joyce D-Day amid Cash AWU crisis

Malcolm Turnbull is staring down demands to sack a cabinet minister, as the government braces for a High Court decision.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce during question time in the house yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Malcolm Turnbull is staring down demands that he sack a cabinet minister over this week’s police raids on Bill Shorten’s former union, as the government braces for a crucial High Court decision today that could force it to a snap by-election.

The Prime Minister backed Employment Minister Michaelia Cash against furious Labor accusations that she misled parliament when she insisted her office did not tip off the media about the raids — a claim she was forced to retract in an explosive Senate row.

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The government rode out the political storm in parliament yesterday but still has three cabinet ministers in doubt, with the ­nation’s highest court due to rule this afternoon on whether Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and two colleagues should be disqualified for holding dual citizenship.

Mr Joyce is ready for a by-­election to be held as soon as ­December 2 if he is removed from parliament over his past citizenship status, while the Coalition faces an internal battle over who should replace Nationals deputy Fiona Nash and former minister Matt Canavan if they are also disqualified.

The government has drafted a plan to respond swiftly to the High Court ruling at 2.15pm if it goes against Mr Joyce, with plans to issue the writs for the by-election in his seat of New England within hours of the court decision.

Mr Turnbull is due to fly to ­Israel late today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of Beersheba but may delay the ­departure to help launch an ­immediate campaign to return Mr Joyce to parliament.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is positioned to be acting prime minister in the event that Mr Turnbull is overseas and Mr Joyce is disqualified, while Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion is expected to be named the temporary ­Nationals leader.

The government’s one-seat majority is at risk in the potential by-election although the Nationals are confident Mr Joyce can defeat likely challengers and senior ministers believe they can tough-out any threats in parliament during his absence.

Michaelia Cash yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

In a key vote yesterday, crossbench MPs Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie sided with the Coalition to defeat a Labor call for Senator Cash to be sacked, giving heart to ministers about their ability to fend off Labor attempts to disrupt parliament if Mr Joyce is removed. While Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie sided with Labor, yesterday’s vote showed Mr Shorten had failed to convince half the crossbenchers of the case against Senator Cash after hours of Senate testimony and public debate. Another crossbencher, Bob Katter, was absent from the vote.

Senator Cash assured a Senate committee on Wednesday that neither she nor her office had told the media of the Australian Federal Police raids on the Australian Workers Union on Tuesday afternoon to obtain documents about a $100,000 donation to GetUp! when Mr Shorten led the union.

In a dramatic change in story, Senator Cash told the same committee hours later that her senior media adviser had admitted tipping off the media.

Mr Shorten demanded she resign as minister for misleading parliament but the government argued she had made her first statement in good faith and corrected the record as soon as her ­adviser told her of his actions.

“She was misled, as she said, and once her staffer told her the truth and made the admission that he’d done the wrong thing, she corrected the record,” Mr Turnbull told parliament. “She acted entirely properly. And that stands in stark contrast to the actions of the Leader of the Opposition.

“It’s not a question of his staff, it’s a question of the people that own him — he is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CFMEU. He is a wholly owned subsidiary of a militant trade union, cashed-up and powerful, that defies the law.”

Senator Cash told the Senate she had not considered resigning, was disappointed that her adviser had misled her and had written to the regulator running the AWU investigation, the Registered ­Organisations Commission, to suggest it launch a police inquiry into the leak.

However, her statements yesterday appeared to contradict earlier evidence she gave about her meeting with Mr Turnbull before question time on Wednesday about the media tip-off. On Wednesday night, she repeatedly told estimates she had a one-sentence conversation with the Prime Minister, telling him she was not responsible for leaking information about the AFP raids to the media.

She also repeatedly denied that Mr Turnbull asked her any questions. But in evidence yesterday she said Mr Turnbull asked for an assurance that she was not responsible for the leak.

The furore over Senator Cash left the government struggling to land a blow on Mr Shorten over his former union’s $100,000 donation to GetUp!, amid continuing questions over the use of union member funds to aid the activist group.

Former Queensland Labor premier Peter Beattie said last night he was “not terribly excited” to see union money going toward GetUp!, adding the payments had to go through proper approval processes. “They should be able to raise money in their own way without getting unions to do it, particularly those that are affiliated to the Labor Party — but that’s just my view,” he told Sky News.

Mr Shorten dismissed the government’s attack on his time as head of the AWU and accused Mr Turnbull of being “up to his neck” in the events that led to parliament being misled.

“This is the problem — the infection which infects the whole of the government,” Mr Shorten told parliament. “They think, these conservatives, that they’re born to rule and that they’re always right, no matter what the facts. The problem is they are born to rule but they are unfit to govern.”

Senator Cash yesterday asked Registered Organisations Commissioner Mark Bielecki to consider requesting the Australian Federal Police investigate the leak to the media about the AFP raids of the AWU. Although her senior media adviser, David De Garis, resigned after admitting to tipping off the media, Senator Cash said she made the request to Mr ­Bielecki “given it’s his information that appears to have been inappropriately divulged”.

During estimates yesterday, the commission said its staff, the AFP, an external law firm and presumably the Victorian and NSW had prior knowledge of the raids of the AWU offices.

Mr Bielecki said the commission did not tell anyone in Senator Cash’s department it had granted a search warrant to the AFP. But he said yesterday he had not yet spoken with his staff about the leak and would only do so when he returned to his Melbourne office.