Court ruling on union raids scandal

COURT OUTCOME OF UNION RAIDS CASE:

WHAT IS THE REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS COMMISSION?

* The federal government established the ROC in 2017 to act as a watchdog over the activities of trade unions and other registered organisations.

WHY DID THEY RAID THE AWU?

* Senator Michaelia Cash, then employment minister, referred to the commission a $100,000 donation the AWU made to advocacy group GetUp! during the 2005-06 financial year, when the then-federal Labor leader Bill Shorten was the union's national secretary.

* The ROC, acting on information it received from "a caller" and fearing documents were being destroyed, asked federal police to raid the Sydney and Melbourne AWU offices on October 25.

* Media were tipped off about the raids by Senator Cash's staff and arrived before police officers.

* The AWU mounted a legal challenge the next day, trying to prevent the seized documents from being accessed by the ROC.

WHAT IS THE RESULT OF THE LEGAL CHALLENGE?

* Two years later and after hearings spanning months in Melbourne's Federal Court, Justice Mordecai Bromberg on Friday found the ROC did not have reasonable grounds to conduct the investigation, calling it "flawed" and "invalid".

* But the judge rejected the AWU's claim that the raids were made to "embarrass or politically harm" Mr Shorten.

* The court will consider whether the raids were also invalid. If so, the evidence collected will likely have to be handed back to the union.