Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. The Minister for Employment has assured me that she did not advise any journalists about the raid. But she's in estimates, I believe, this afternoon and will no doubt have the opportunity to go into this in great detail. But the real issue is this: why did the AWU give $100,000 of its hardworking members' union dues to GetUp! and was it authorised under the rules? That is the matter that the Registered Organisations Commission is investigating, and that inquiry was the subject or the context of the search warrants that were exercised yesterday. As honourable members would know, the Registered Organisations Commission said yesterday in a statement:

Since the investigation commenced, the ROC received information which raised reasonable grounds for suspecting that documents relevant to this investigation may be on the premises of the AWU … and that those documents may be being interfered with (by being concealed or destroyed).

They went to a magistrate, they secured a warrant and the warrant was executed. And now I see that the AWU's lawyers are in court trying to stop the police having access to the documents.

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