Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The revelation has undermined the government's attack on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who was head of the AWU when it made large donations to the activist group GetUp! The AFP conducted Tuesday's raids on behalf of the government's Registered Organisations Commission. Senator Cash is now facing accusation she misled the Parliament, and Labor is demanding she resign. Asked by Labor MPs whether her possible resignation was discussed during her meeting with Mr Turnbull, Senator Cash repeatedly refused to say. "I will not be going into the ins and outs of the discussions I had with the Prime Minister," she said.

Asked directly whether she had considered resigning over the furore, she said: "No, I have not." Thursday morning's meeting was the second Senator Cash has had with Mr Turnbull about the matter. The other took place before question time on Wednesday, when she assured him she personally had not leaked any information to the media. Mr De Garis was in that meeting but did not admit his media dealings until hours later. It is not known where Mr De Garis got the information about the raids. Senator Cash says she asked him about it but he declined to tell her. Senator Cash will press him further during a meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon. On Thursday morning, Senator Cash told the committee she had written to the Registered Organisations Commission asking what it was doing to investigate a possible breach. "I note that, as minister, I do not have the power to direct you in relation to such a matter. However, one course of action which I would ask you to consider is referring the matter to the Australian Federal Police," she said.

The Commission said it would have further internal discussions before deciding how to proceed, or whether to call in the AFP. It also emerged during the hearing that the media adviser for the Fair Work Ombudsman – who also does work for the Commission – knew about the raids three hours before journalists started being tipped off. The adviser used to work with Senator Cash's junior media adviser in the office of former Victorian MP Denis Napthine. Labor senator Murray Watt asked if Senator Cash could categorically rule out whether any other member of her staff knew about the raids or the leaks. "To the best of my knowledge, yes," she said.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said the investigation into the AWU's donations to GetUp! a decade ago had begun as an attempt to smear Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and it had "blown up" in the Turnbull government's face. "There are two things that are clear from the new evidence that has come out. The first is that Michaelia Cash does have to go, and the second is that the Prime Minister is up to his neck in this," Mr Burke told the ABC. "In terms of what Michaelia Cash is now asking us to believe, we are meant to believe that her staff watched her give false information to the Senate on five separate occasions." Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said it "beggars belief she did not know of the role of her office in tipping off the media". But senior Coalition colleagues have defended Senator Cash, insisting she did not need to resign.

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said: "The reality is Michaelia Cash told the Senate the truth and as soon as she found out she had been misled, she corrected the record." Social Services Minister Christian Porter said his fellow Western Australian MP was a "truthful person and clearly a member of her staff has done something very serious and very seriously wrong". Loading Labor wants the committee to reconvene on Friday morning. Follow us on Facebook