Good morning, early birds. As expected, Tuesday’s raid on Bill Shorten‘s old union has blown up in the government’s face, with at least one casualty so far. And a damning report on the state of aged care facilities in Australia has led the government to promise tighter checks on nursing homes. It’s the news you need to know, with Max Chalmers.

COALITION FAILS TO CASH IN ON RAIDS

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has been forced into a humiliating retreat after telling a Senate estimates hearing five times that her office did not tip-off journalists about an Australian Federal Police raid on the offices of the Australian Workers’ Union — only for her denials to be retracted.

Responding to probing from Labor Senator Doug Cameron, Cash said she was “offended” by the “very serious allegations”, which she rejected. But as she did so, a BuzzFeed report emerged indicating two separate media outlets had been tipped-off about the raid by Cash’s staff. When the Minister returned to estimates after a break she was forced to correct the record, saying a staffer had contacted media outlets without her knowledge, and that the person responsible had resigned. Cash said the staffer had received the information about the raid from a “media source”.

The incident redirected focus away from Coalition attacks on former AWU head Bill Shorten and calls by the federal directors of the Liberal and National parties — Andrew Hirst and Ben Hindmarsh, respectively — to have GetUp! reclassified as an associated entity of Labor or the Greens. Labor is now calling for Cash’s resignation.

Registered Organisations Commissioner Mark Bielecki yesterday said the AWU raid had been triggered after the union declined to hand over documents and the commission received information from a “caller” indicating they might be destroyed.

Worryingly for the government, even Andrew Bolt came out against the raids last night, saying they seemed like part of a “disturbing patter of the Liberals under both Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull to use state power against a political enemy”.

AGED CARE CHECKS

The federal government will tighten checks on aged care facilities in the wake of an abuse scandal at a state-run nursing home in South Australia.

Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt yesterday released a review triggered by reports of abuse at an Oakden nursing home in Adelaide. The report recorded 4500 complaints nationally against providers in the sector per year, and noted 40% of residents did not have a single visitor in the course of a year.

As part of its response, the government will introduce spot-checks to ensure facilities are not able to window dress in advance of inspections, something that helped Oakden staff mask mistreatment at the centre.

STILL XI’S CHINA

Chinese President Xi Jinping has refreshed the Communist Party’s leadership team, filling the party’s top body with loyalists and omitting potential future leaders.

With five new faces in the seven-person team, the renewal of the Politburo Standing Committee could have been a chance for Xi to anoint a successor, but his failure to do so has been widely seen as an expression of his expanded power and desire to remain in charge for years to come. 

THEY REALLY SAID THAT

“One Nation with a PhD.”

That’s how New Zealand’s new Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters responded to a comparison of his NZ First party and Pauline Hanson’s political project in Australia.

“Our policy has been seriously misinterpreted and short-changed by that sort of comparison,” he told Fairfax.

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Melbourne: Crown Resorts holds its AGM.

Canberra: Senate estimates continues with Health, Treasury, Foreign Affairs, and Education staff among those to be questioned.

Sydney: Cricketer Chris Gayle continues his defamation proceedings against Fairfax with journalists expected to be called to give evidence today.

Wellington: NZ Labour leader Jacinda Ardern will have her cabinet sworn in.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Attack on Bill Shorten’s union past blows up in Coalition’s face — Laura Tingle (Australian Financial Review $): “It is almost unfortunate that there was so much attention to the question of who did the tipping off, because it was a distraction from the more substantive issues which remain even after the Cash staffer resignation.”

Malcolm Turnbull’s overreach in raids on Bill Shorten’s former union — Royce Millar and Ben Schneiders (Brisbane Times): “Yes there may have been technical breaches of rules 10 years ago, but there is no question about the union executive’s support for both Shorten’s parliamentary push and the founding of GetUp!”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

History shows the AWU raid could backfire for the Coalition — Bernard Keane: “What’s the problem with donating to GetUp? I mean, hell, I don’t like GetUp much either, but donating to them is hardly illegal.”

What to expect at tomorrow’s Crown AGM with James Packer — Stephen Mayne: “If the past is any guide, tomorrow will be a tightly controlled affair. No webcast, no video, no audio and — as The Australian Financial Review’s Julie-anne Sprague noted on Twitter this morning — last year they even tried to make the media stand to one side in a roped off area before the meeting.”

The man behind the Holy Wars: it’s about ‘values’, not ideology — Emily Watkins: “If you believe Mitchell, The Australian became a vehicle for personalised, nasty, biased, often vicious campaigns against a whole cast of individuals because it believes in ‘a set of values’.” 

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