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| Cathy Wilcox Cartoon |
Senator Cash has been under pressure to resign too because she repeatedly told Senate Estimates her office did not leak, but later corrected the record when her staff member confessed.
It is not yet clear who told the media adviser that the raids would happen.
Labor senators had hoped to ask more questions during an Estimates hearing in Canberra today, including to find the original source of the leak.
But as soon as the committee started, Attorney-General George Brandis said the AFP was now inquiring into the leak.
The Australian Workers Union offices have been raided in a donations investigation. Here's what they're being accused of.
Yesterday, Senator Cash told the committee she had written to the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) which originally asked police to conduct the raids, suggesting it request an investigation into the leak.
The committee is sitting for an extra day today because of the controversy over the raids and the leak but Senator Cash is not appearing.
She has returned to her home state of Western Australia because she said she had longstanding commitments in Perth today.
Senator Brandis is appearing instead.
This morning he told the committee that the AFP told Senator Cash's office last night that "as the matter is under investigation, it would not be appropriate to discuss the matter further".
He said that meant neither he, nor others would accept questions about the matter today "at the request of the Australian Federal Police".
Meanwhile, the union has launched a Federal Court bid to have the raids declared invalid.
But a hearing scheduled for today was adjourned after the parties agreed to a timetable, with a full hearing likely in December.
It means any AWU documents seized by the AFP will not be handed over to the ROC before the December hearing.
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