Shorten alleges 'political witch hunt' after police raid AWU offices with TV crews watching on

Channel Seven news cameras were in position to film the raids on Tuesday evening and captured the arrival of AFP officers at the Australian Workers Union office in Sydney.

Malcolm Turnbull says the AWU and Bill Shorten have questions to answer after AFP raids on the union's officers in Sydney and Melbourne. Source: AAP

Key points:

 Union heads to federal court to challenge raids

• Shorten accuses government of ‘witch hunt’
• Turnbull strongly rejects alleged political influence on police

Labor leader Bill Shorten has accused the Turnbull Government of indirectly instructing the federal police to carry out Tuesday night raids on the offices of his former union, the Australian Workers Union.

The raids were in support of an investigation into the AWU by the relatively new Registered Organisations Commission, which was set up by the government in May to regulate unions and employer groups.

In August, employment minister Michaelia Cash instructed the ROC to investigate the AWU over a $100,000 donation from the union to the activist group GetUp in 2005, when Mr Shorten was the leader of the union.

 

Bill Shorten has questions to answer: Turnbull on AFP raids on AWU

 

"This is a little-known organisation, which was set up in the last few months by the government, to do exactly what we predicted they'd do - hunt down and smear the reputation of the opponents of the government," Mr Shorten said on Wednesday morning.

"The regulator, at the behest of the government, is conducting a political witch-hunt designed to throw mud in the hope that some will stick."