FORMER staff of ex-Liberal MP Tim Owen have given sworn evidence that they emptied and checked all filing cabinets and shredded all records in his electorate office after he quit, describing as ‘‘almost to the point of being impossible’’ Labor’s claim of later finding a cabinet minute inside.

The two former electorate office workers have also spoken of their deep shock at their boss resigning last year amid the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigations into his 2011 election campaign funding. 

One has told a parliamentary inquiry that ‘‘the first time we knew about anything that was ever going on untoward or the ICAC issues was through Twitter feeds’’ during the corruption watchdog’s hearings.

The pair gave evidence this week in closed session to the parliamentary inquiry into Newcastle planning decisions. A transcript was released without naming them.

They were called as witnesses following claims by Mr Owen’s successor, Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp, that he found a confidential 58-page cabinet document about Newcastle’s light rail project in the back of a filing cabinet in December after he moved in.

The two staff were emphatic they had thoroughly cleaned out and carefully checked the filing cabinets in the months between Mr Owen quitting and Mr Crakanthorp winning the city’s October byelection, in accordance with advice from the Parliament.

Witness A said she had systematically emptied filing cabinets, which held constituent material, and then ‘‘shredded, shredded, shredded’’.

She could ‘‘100 per cent’’ claim they were empty because during the process she found a file at the very back of a cabinet ‘‘then I thought, ‘Oh, goodness, I’m glad I found that’’’.

‘‘It prompted me to go right back through all of the drawers, pull everything out, and just do a double check and then a triple check. I was very vigilant about making sure everything was removed,’’ Witness A said.

Witness B said he also cleared the cabinets and was ‘‘extremely shocked’’ to read reports of Labor saying they discovered the document inside one.

Asked if it was possible a document was overlooked in the clean-out, he said ‘‘anything is possible’’ but later elaborated: ‘‘I still find it to be very highly, extremely unlikely, almost to the point of being impossible’’.

He said there was no ‘‘secret area’’ of the office where Mr Owen could have stashed sensitive documents, and he had never seen a document like the cabinet minute, marked ‘‘copy 71’’,  which was published by Fairfax Media.

Asked specifically of Mr Crakanthorp’s claims, Witness B said: ‘‘All I can do is answer those direct questions about my role following Mr Owen’s resignation.’’

Labor MPs on the inquiry committee quizzed the pair on whether they completely removed draws from the cabinets and checked the floor beneath. They said they did not.

Both spoke of the fall-out from Mr Owen’s resignation, after he admitted lying to the ICAC about a $10,000 cash donation from Jeff McCloy to his 2011 campaign.

‘‘Tim had never come to me and said, ‘I’ve done this or I’ve done that’,’’ Witness A said.

‘‘Those discussions never took place. So ... I felt after the evidence [to ICAC] that he had given that he would be resigning, but it was all still a very shocking time for us.’’

Witness B said: ‘‘The resignation of Tim Owen was a shock and it was a very difficult time. So to have that brought up again, that whole matter brought up again, it has been a little bit distressing.’’

Mr Owen told the inquiry on Monday he ‘‘cannot recall’’ ever seeing the cabinet document and he had faith his staff would have emptied the office of records as they assured him they had.

Mr Crakanthorp has agreed to appear on Friday after declining to attend Monday’s hearing, a decision that lead government MPs to declare he was ‘‘lying’’ and seeking to avoid telling his story about the document under oath. He said he had been ‘‘absolutely upfront’’ about the matter.

The government has referred the alleged cabinet leak to ICAC.