Melbourne AWU raid concludes after marathon search
AFP officers and ROC representatives wrapped up their search after over four hours inside the Melbourne AWU office.
Officers from the Australian Federal Police and representatives from the Registered Organisations Commission left the Melbourne AWU headquarters at 9pm last night after spending four and a half hours inside.
Victorian branch president Ben Davis said they had left with a small stack of papers which they took from the premises in a black briefcase.
“It took time because they were very slow and methodical about what they did. But at 9.05pm, the disgraceful sideshow this has been has now finished for the night. Every document they were seeking we handed over voluntarily, as we were always going to do,” he said.
Claims that documents had possibly been tampered with were false, he said.
“Let me pose this question to the federal government - how stupid do you think I would be to try and destroy documents now that we have already handed over to the Trade Union Royal Commission? How stupid would I look doing that? Apart from the fact it is an offence.”
“We will be taking these matters to court. If you are a federal government or regulator, you can’t act in such a thuggish manner without any possible response from us and those that support us. So yes we will be going to court. Because we think there are some questions that need to be answered about this whole process.”
AWU raids sparked by concerns documents had been ‘destroyed’
Dramatic Australian Federal Police raids on the Australian Workers’ Union in Sydney and Melbourne were driven by concerns that documents were being hidden or destroyed, the Coalition’s new union regulator revealed tonight.
The Registered Organisations Commission said the raids on the union formerly run by Labor Leader Bill Shorten were conducted after it received information that documents relevant to its probe into the union “may be being interfered with by being concealed or destroyed’’.
Attempted legal action by the AWU in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in response to the raids was delayed after union lawyers were unable to get a hearing convened tonight.
The AWU will launch Federal Court action tomorrow challenging the warrants authorising the AFP to conduct the raids. The legal action, if successful, could potentially stop the commission using the documents seized in the raids.
The commission investigation is probing the AWU Victorian and national branches over whether donations made to GetUp! in 2006 were approved under the AWU’s rules.
It was launched following reports by The Australian that the AWU — which was then led by Mr Shorten — donated to GetUp! when it was established.
While Mr Shorten was head of AWU sources have said at least $100,000 of AWU funds were contributed to GetUp! in 2006, and possibly more.
GetUp! said the raids were “part of a pattern from this government trying to silence its critics or anyone who challenges it”.
GetUp! said it had handled the $100,000 donation from the AWU in 2005-2006 appropriately and “there is no suggestion otherwise”.
“Tonight’s raids are yet another example of the Federal Government’s crackdown on organisations, experts and the community who are standing up for everyday Australians,’’ it said
The raids caused a political storm with the ALP and the union movement accusing the government of using the police to try and damage Mr Shorten.
Opposition workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor said Malcolm Turnbull was treating the AFP as a political “plaything”.
He warned the commission was politically compromised, accusing it of colluding with the government and the media to “smear” Mr Shorten and the Labor Party.
“As a result of today, it’s clear now the government is using the power of the state and using taxpayer dollars to attack its political opponents,’’ he said.
“There were cameras waiting outside the premises of the AWU before the police arrived. So clearly there’s collusion with this agency and the government with the media to ensure that this matter is elevated publicly.”
Mr O’Connor said the raids on the Victorian and national offices of the AWU represented an “abuse of ministerial power” and called on the Prime Minister to explain what role his government had played in them.
“They have sought to use their coercive powers to deploy police to raid offices to deal with what could be a civil matter at best,” he said. “Malcolm Turnbull, when he’s under pressure, calls the police.”
But a government spokesman rejected the attack, saying the AFP was completely independent of government.
“It is absurd and false to suggest the AFP is in any way politicised,’’ the spokesman said.
“Labor is attacking the independence, integrity and professionalism of the AFP and its officers. This is an offensive slur and a disgraceful distraction.”
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the union movement “condemns the nakedly political use of the AFP in today’s action against working people and their representatives”.
“Using the police in such a way, while refusing to do anything to prevent money laundering by terrorists and drug dealers by the big banks, demonstrates the government’s appalling priorities,’’ she said.
“This is the sort of action you would expect to see by an authoritarian dictator, and it has no place in Australia. All Australians should be disgusted.”
“This matter was referred to the Registered Organisations Commission weeks ago and it is important it is allowed to investigate without hysterical smears from Labor.
A commission spokesman said the commission put the information to magistrate who earlier today issued warrants authorising AFP officers to enter the union’s offices in Sydney and Melbourne to search for and seize documents.
Under the federal workplace laws, he said it was an offence for a person to engage in conduct that results in the concealment, destruction or alteration of a document relating to an investigation being conducted, or about to be investigated by the commission.
AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said the commission’s conduct was “an extraordinary abuse of police resources and taxpayer funds by a desperate government”.
“It is clear the ROC has been established not to promote good governance, but to use taxpayer and police resources to muckrake through historic documents in an attempt to find anything that might smear a future Labor prime minister,’’ he said.
“This is a shameful new low for a government already scraping the bottom of the political barrel.”
Mr Walton said the raids carried out on offices in Melbourne and Sydney were “quite possibly one of the greatest abuses of political and public power by the Turnbull Government”.
“The investigation which has been commenced today is nothing but an abuse of power. We have had over 26 AFP officers raid our offices in search of a couple of documents of over 10 years ago which do nothing more than highlight the fact that the union made a few political donations. It’s an extraordinary misuse of police resources, that could be better spent on far more important actions,” he said.
“We are concerned because of the way they executed this, we received notification from the Registered Organisations Commission on Friday, that they were planning to investigate this.
“This afternoon we were meeting with our lawyers to start working through how we would respond in a proper manner. We had no indication that this was going to be undertaken. It’s concerning to us that before we actually find out, that they are planning to take this step, we had media crews lined up out the front door step of union offices, before the union was actually made aware the AFP is planning to raid.”
With Simone Fox Koob
More Coverage
ALP’s living wage for 1.2m
Significant wage rises would begin flowing to 1.2m low-paid workers from next July under Bill Shorten’s ‘living wage’ policy.
Union rep sued for workers’ ban
The construction union is facing court for allegedly preventing two non-unionised workers from working on a building site.