Thread by @lukehgomes

Michaelia Cash is fronting court today in civil trial over the AWU raids. I will be there covering for @guardianaus - and here’s our story from yesterday: the first link drawn between the leaks and Cash’s office/the Roc theguardian.com/australia-news…

@GuardianAus Asked if Shorten's role as head of the AWU at the time of the GetUp donations was of interest to her politically, Cash says: "I am politician. By nature I am political." But she says the referral to ROC was a discharge of ministerial duties #auspol

@GuardianAus Asked if she expected anything to flow from the referral letters, Cash says she did not. It was a matter for the Roc to decide what to do next, she says .#auspol

@GuardianAus The AWU's lawyer is trying to ask Cash about her conversation with David De Garis on the night he resigned. Cash's lawyer has objected, saying the conversation is covered under parliamentary privilege #auspol

@GuardianAus The key question is whether the conversation was for the purpose of obtaining information was #estimates. Cash has told the court – specifically – that the "purposes for any conversation were so that I could report back to the Senate estimates committee". #auspol

@GuardianAus Cash says the police asked her if she wanted to make a statement on the AWU raids leak, she sent them her statement from Senate Estimates. She was not interviewed. #auspol

@GuardianAus Michaelia Cash has told the court she "didn't make further enquiries" about the leak after her all staff members – except David De Garis – told her they had no advance knowledge of the police raids on the AWU #auspol

@GuardianAus The AWU's lawyer has asked to cross-examine Cash over her claims that her letters to the Roc were not motivated by a desire to discredit Bill Shorten. #auspol

@GuardianAus (As the court has now heard, De Garis learned of the raids from Cash's former COS Ben Davies, not a "media source" – as Cash told Senate Estimates and the AFP

@GuardianAus Cash is asked multiple times whether she was pleased the Roc decided to investigate the AWU. She says she was not pleased or displeased – later says she would have "wondered" what the outcome would be. #auspol

@GuardianAus And that's it – Cash has been allowed to go

@GuardianAus Justice Bromberg has ruled that Cash's former COS Ben Davies will be forced to tell the court what he knew about the raids and who told him. He is due to return to the stand on Monday. The court heard yesterday Davies' named Roc adviser Mark Lee as his source #auspol

@GuardianAus Named him in a police statement, that is.

@GuardianAus Takeaways from Michaelia Cash's time in the witness stand:

- Maintains she first learned of raids from the TV
- Denies she wanted the Roc to investigate AWU: "merely a referral"
- Would not say if "pleased or displeased" Roc chose to launch probe
- Was not interviewed by police

@GuardianAus Also - her lawyer successfully cited parl privilege so that she would not have to answer q's about her post "dinner break" conversation with David De Garis