Labor calls for Cash to stand down
Labor has called on federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to stand aside after she refused to answer questions about the leaking of information about police raids on two trade union offices.
Senator Cash told a Senate committee in Canberra on Friday she was not personally under investigation and could not comment on other matters under investigation by the Australian Federal Police.
"If the minister claims that she cannot answer any questions about the AFP criminal investigation which clearly centres on her office then she must stand aside immediately," Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said in a statement.
In October, Senator Cash repeatedly denied her office was responsible for informing the media of the raids.
It later emerged her senior media adviser resigned after informing journalists of the raids on the Sydney and Melbourne offices of the Australian Workers Union.
Federal police officers executed the warrants, which had been sought by the Registered Organisations Commission to ensure documents weren't tampered with or destroyed.
The commission is investigating $200,000 in donations made by the AWU, including $100,000 given to activist group GetUp in the 2005/06 financial year while now-Labor leader Bill Shorten was the union's secretary.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
Most viewed in Australia
One Nation’s drastic plan to slash migration by 750,000 slammed by farmers
Australian woman who died after falling from cliff near Bali was Queensland ecologist
PM ‘stunned’ over Pauline Hanson’s attack on his late mother
Sydney family’s warning after discovering father’s lost super years after his death