SENATOR THE HON KRISTINA KENEALLY
DEPUTY LABOR LEADER IN THE SENATE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES
WHY WON’T PETER DUTTON ALLOW AN INVESTIGATION INTO A CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY ADVICE LEAK?
New Questions on Notice have revealed that only one person in Peter Dutton’s office had spoken to a journalist before an unauthorised leak of national security advice took place and that the Australian Federal Police never even contacted the Minister’s staff member.
In February, before Medevac became law, classified national security advice was splashed on the front page of The Australian newspaper – a leak that occurred for blatant political gain.
The classified advice was purported to be from ASIO however was from a sensitive Ministerial Submission which ASIO had been consulted on. At the time, the then-head of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, described that leak as “seriously damaging” adding “it undermines all that we (ASIO) stand for"".
Answers to Questions on Notice from the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee inquiry into Press Freedom state the AFP did not speak to the one staff member from Peter Dutton’s office in contact with the journalist because “additional information provided by the Department indicated the person who had contacted (journalist’s name) did not have access to the leaked material.”
However, another question on notice reveals the AFP don’t even know how many members of Peter Dutton’s staff had access to the classified information.
QUESTION: How many people in the Minister for Home Affairs’ office had access to the relevant Ministerial Submissions?
AFP RESPONSE: That number is unknown as the email addresses provided do not stipulate if the member was working in the Minister’s office.
The AFP also did not obtain copies of emails between Peter Dutton’s staff member and the journalist, as “the titles of the emails did not indicate a correlation to the story.”
How can the Minister for Home Affairs have confidence this staff member did not leak classified national security advice when the AFP haven’t spoken to them, haven’t seen their emails and there was only one staff member who has been talking to the journalist who published the story?
It is up to journalists to report on matters of public interest and this issue is not about the story in question – it is about the leaking of classified national security advice.
Can Peter Dutton assure the public his staff member – the only person who had spoken the relevant journalist – did not leak classified national security advice?
Will Peter Dutton order his staff members to hand over emails to the AFP so they can be certain their responses hold water rather than having to rely on subject lines?
The public have a right to know if someone at the heart of the Morrison Government is leaking sensitive national security information.
When classified information that embarrassed the third term Liberal National Government ended up in the newspapers, the personal homes of journalists were raided.
When classified national security information that suited the Government’s political purposes ended up on the front pages of newspapers, the one person in touch with the relevant journalist hasn’t even been spoken to by police.
Why is there always one standard for Peter Dutton and another for everyone else?
