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The Australian Federal Police has searched the office of the senior Labor senator Stephen Conroy, in a move the Opposition says is "extraordinary and unprecedented" during an election campaign.
Key points:
- Senator Stephen Conroy's office, home of Labor staffer raided
- Tony Burke says NBN documents were leaked
- Malcolm Turnbull says the incident a matter for the federal police
But the Prime Minister has rejected any suggestion of Government interference, saying the AFP operates "entirely independently of the Government".
Labor says the searches on Senator Conroy's Melbourne office and the home of a Labor staffer in the suburb of Brunswick are connected to documents leaked from National Broadband Network (NBN).
It is understood officers raided the home of a staffer of Opposition communications spokesman Jason Clare.
"These are extraordinary and unprecedented events and the Government has a great deal of explaining to do," the shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told Lateline.
"All Australians are right to be concerned about the appearance of a raid being conducted on a Labor senator's office and on the homes of Labor staffers in the second week of a campaign."
Mr Dreyfus has questioned if proper procedure has been followed, given the Government is now in caretaker mode and has suggested there is a double standard.
"It's vitally important that the Australian Federal Police and a national government at all times conduct themselves in a manner which builds confidence in our police forces and our security agencies," he said.
"There have been more than 20 serious national-security-related leaks under this Abbott-Turnbull Government, and not one of them has resulted in an AFP investigation."
The ABC understands that once the search on Senator Conroy's office was underway, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was briefed by the AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin, immediately after Justice Minister Michael Keenan was informed.
It is understood that is the first the Government knew of the investigation, and that the matter was referred to police by NBN.
'The AFP is an entirely independent organisation'
Mr Shorten has sought to tie the events to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
"We'll have more to say in coming days, it's an extraordinary development," he told reporters in western Sydney.
"It relates to Mr Turnbull's time in charge of the NBN and the extraordinary blowout of costs and huge delays in the implementation of NBN and millions of Australian households not getting what was promised."
As he left the same event as Mr Shorten, Mr Turnbull said it was entirely a matter for the AFP.
"They operate entirely independently of the Government and so this is a matter for the AFP, the Labor party know that as well as you and I do," Mr Turnbull said.
Treasurer Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also stressed the independence of the AFP.
"The AFP is an entirely independent organisation that makes their own judgements on these things," Mr Cormann said.
Documents from NBN Co marked "commercial in confidence" were first published by Fairfax in February.
They referred to a "critical bottleneck" in the design phase of the broadband network.
On the day they were revealed, NBN Co said it was confident it would meet its rollout targets, and that the project would come in on budget.
Topics: alp, government-and-politics, police, law-crime-and-justice, information-and-communication, melbourne-3000, australia
First posted