"Joe Ludwig, in one financial year alone, cost the Commonwealth almost $800,000," she said, also naming Penny Wong, Wayne Swan, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard as among those who had "received assistance under the same rules that I was approved assistance for legal fees". Senator Cash said "proper process" had been followed and pointed out that the AWU had brought the proceedings against the commission. "If they had the documents and handed them over to the Registered Organisations Commission - or alternatively just produced, back in August of 2017, the relevant authorisations - none of these fees would have been incurred," she said. Mr Bielecki told the estimates hearing that the commission had spent $507,582 on fees for its legal team made up of two barristers, two instructing solicitors and a paralegal, and had received $42,903 worth of invoices that were yet to be paid, with more to come. He said the funds came from the commission's operating budget, which was now being tightly monitored after being hit with the unanticipated expense.

"The course of the trial is not something I can control ... If it takes more days, it will cost more." The taxpayer-funded ROC had an annual budget of $7.7 million, meaning the court case was taking a significant portion of funds away from the regulator's activities, Mr Bielecki said. Registered Organisations commissioner Mark Bielecki has refused to comment on the AWU case before estimates. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Senator Doug Cameron, who used the estimates hearings to repeatedly accuse the commission and Senator Cash of perpetuating a "cover up", said Labor would abolish the ROC if it won the coming election and "save the public a lot of money". He demanded to know what extra training the commission had given staff since the raids, after the Federal Court heard that the commission's media officer had allegedly passed on information about the police raids to Senator Cash's former chief of staff Ben Davies.

Mr Davies, who worked for the senator when she was employment minister, told the court on Monday that an unsolicited tip-off about union raids had "obvious political implications" for federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. The commission was investigating the union over allegations of document destruction linked to two donations made when Mr Shorten was the AWU national secretary. Mr Bielecki and ROC executive director Chris Enright - who is due to give evidence in court next week - repeatedly refused to answer Senator Cameron's questions, invoking the public interest exemption. "As the committee will be aware, there is a proceeding before the Federal Court," Mr Bielecki said. "As the matter is part heard, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the matters before the courts."

The ROC is defending the AWU claim that its investigation into donations by the union was politically motivated and improper. Senator Cameron called the ROC "an incompetent organisation", declaring: "The cover up is still on". "You won't answer any questions, you've made no changes to processes or procedures after what is a disgraceful breach, you're made no changes to your education program ... What do you do?" he said. Mr Bielecki hit back, saying the commission had a dedicated staff who did important work in educating unions and ensuring they complied with the law. Senator Cash told an earlier estimates hearing on Wednesday that she had "no prior knowledge" of the police raids - despite her former media advisor having told the Federal Court last week that he heard about the raids from Cash's then chief of staff Ben Davies.