A comissão investiga uma doação de 100 mil dólares ao grupo ativista Get Up! em 2005, quando o líder da oposição, Bill Shorten, era presidente deste sindicato, AWU/Australian Workers' Union.
A batida foi decorrência de informaçòes que chegaram à comissão de que documentos importantes para a sua investigação estariam sendo destruídos ou escondidos.
O sindicato nega que tenha feito algo errado.
Mas o primeiro-ministro Malcolm Turnbull diz que tanto o sindicato como Bill Shorten tem questões para responder:
"The AWU has got questions to answer. Bill Shorten has questions to answer: why his union was making100,000 donation to Getup!, an organisation that, I might say, is opposed to most of the industries that employ members of the AWU."
Bill Shorten rotulou a operação policial como um ato de desespero, com motivações políticas, por parte do governo:
"The government is wasting taxpayer money in an increasingly grubby effort by a grubby government, and, quite frankly, a grubby Prime Minister, who've been exposed as standing for nothing. And all they' have left is tro try and damage the reputation of their opponents."
O ministro-sombra para o Emprego, Brendan O'Connor, disse que a operação da Polícia Federal no Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Australianos foi um ataque do governo de Malcolm Turnbull sobre o Partido Trabalhista:
"It is beggars belief that this is not a political raid, beggars belief. Let's look at the history of this government. The Royal Commission called three Labor leaders. It's never happened in our history, since Federation. Two Prime Ministers and a Labor leader called to two royal commissions and now we have a situation where we have a Registered Organisation Commission established. What is their first public act? To raid the union offices of the AWU in an attempt to attack them and in an attempt to smear federal Labor and its leader."
O presidente do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Australianos, Daniel Walton, disse que a doação foi feita dentro das regras do sindicato e que a investigação da Comissão das Organizações Registradas era somente sobre um aspecto técnico:
"Yeah. The donation was approved. So, let's rewind...ten years ago. There was a discussion with our executive, bascially the board of directors, to make a decision on whether or not we were going to help fund and set up a new organisation that was going to pursue the interests of our members. The decision was made. What they're investigating is whether or not we filed the correct paperwork.".
