The AWU launched its court challenge following revelations from BuzzFeed News that jobs and innovation minister Michaelia Cash's office tipped off the media about the October 24 raids by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on the Sydney and Melbourne offices.



BuzzFeed News has also spoken to a journalist who claims they received a tip-off from then justice minister Michael Keenan's office ahead of the raids.

The union aims to probe the validity of the raids, which were part of an investigation by the Turnbull government–established watchdog, the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC), into donations made by the AWU over a decade ago when it was run by current Labor leader Bill Shorten.

ROC commissioner Mark Bielecki told Senate Estimates on Wednesday the agency had spent $434,646 (including GST) to date on external law firm Ashurst Australia and two further barristers to represent the agency in the AWU matter.

One internal lawyer has also been working on the ROC's defence, but the agency refused to provide details and said it didn't keep internal costs.

"Do you think it's appropriate for taxpayers to spend nearly half a million dollars in lawyers' fees on a witch-hunt into a $100,000 donation made more than a decade ago?" Labor senator Doug Cameron asked.

"What would you have me do, senator?" Bielecki replied. "Would you have me not defend the ROC? The view I take is the ROC is entitled to defend a case based on allegations it denies and wants tried as soon as possible. That leads to expenditure of money to run that defence.”

The commission originally estimated the case would cost $240,000, but the size of the contract doubled in January and has subsequently increased again, as the court case continues to be delayed.



Bielecki blamed the AWU for the size of the legal bill and expressed his frustration that the matter had not yet been resolved. He said he doesn't have a projection of what the total cost of the case might be.



The watchdog boss rejected allegations that the decision to commence the AWU investigation "was somehow tainted by the political process".

But Bielecki did confirm previous statements regarding the timeline of events that led to the raids.

"She [Cash] wrote to the ROC, attaching copies of media articles ... that related to the allegations that were going to be, or she wanted us to look at," he said.

Within 24 hours of receiving the letter, the ROC had commenced an investigation into the AWU.



Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) Natalie James said her agency has spent around $180,000 in external legal fees to challenge and comply with an AWU subpoena.

This is despite the agency having more than 50 in-house lawyers.

James couldn't answer how many FWO employees were working on the case, or how much had been spent internally.

FWO is the workplace regulator. It was issued with a subpoena to produce documents but succeeded in having aspects set aside. The scope of the subpoena was narrowed to only include documents from 27 employees who had been in communication with the ROC at the time of the raids.



The regulator refused to answer further questions about the case, claiming public interest immunity, but did tell Senate Estimates that it had been instructed by the AFP to redact the documents supplied under subpoena for the AWU case.



The Federal Court has adjourned the AWU's challenge into the "improper political purpose" of the raids until an AFP investigation has been finalised.