Tony Abbott has attacked Labor for claiming that national security was compromised during an official photo opportunity in the security agency’s Canberra headquarters.
Asio denied that documents broadcast following the press call on Wednesday were classified, but Labor hammered the Coalition on it during question time on Thursday.
“The director general of Asio and other senior officers from Asio were very, very keen to see those cameras come to Asio headquarters because it helps to highlight the very important work that Asio does to keep our country safe,” Abbott said when asked by Labor what the benefit was of opening the agency up to cameras.
“The suggestion coming again and again from members opposite that somehow the director-general of Asio, that senior officers of Asio would have permitted classified material to be photographed is just ludicrous.”
During a rowdy question time, the last for six weeks after parliament rises on Thursday for the winter break, shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus was named and booted from parliament for three days. He had on Thursday morning attempted to have the prime minister censured for risking Australia’s national security.
The Asio documents contain a map that highlights the Australian hotspots where radicalisation is more likely to occur, including in Sydney’s western suburbs and Melbourne’s north.
Asio’s director general of security, Duncan Lewis, laid out the maps during a briefing with Abbott, the justice minister, Michael Keenan, and the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, at an official event attended by journalists, photographers and camera operators on Wednesday.
When the ABC asked Asio for electronic copies of the maps, they were knocked back on the grounds that they were for “official use only”. Asio media asked the broadcaster not to publish the documents for that reason.
The statement is a departure from what the agency had put forward on Thursday morning.
“The director general of security confirms the documents used in the briefing were not the subject of a national security classification,” the earlier statement from Asio said. “The documents were carefully edited and were unclassified. The content of the documents did not compromise national security.”
Abbott’s office had put the onus on the security agency earlier on Thursday.
“The documents were selected by Asio and the director-general of security is satisfied that no information of national security significance was visible while media representatives were present,” a spokesman said.
Labor attempted to censure the prime minister over the incident, saying the government had to answer questions on whether it putting “politics before the security of Australians,”, but the motion failed.
The timing is a major embarrassment for the government, coinciding with the introduction of national security laws that strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they are accused of terrorism.
“How can it be that the prime minister who tells us day after day that he’s at the heart of a very serious security conversation … can suddenly be in a meeting being appraised of sensitive material and not recognise it for the sensitive material that it is?” shadow assistant defence minister David Feeney asked.
“How can his own instincts, which he tells us are very finely honed, not ring with alarm bells when being briefed with material that is secret in full view of our cameras?”
Liberal backbencher Craig Laundy, whose western Sydney seat takes in many of hotspots shown in the map, said he is aware of the problem of radicalisation.
“This is a known issue,” he told Sky News. “We know where these areas are … and this should be called for what it is, a beat up.”
Lewis offered a explanation of the documents during Wednesday’s press call.
“This is a map which shows the two cities of Melbourne and Sydney, where fighters who’ve gone off to the Middle East have emanated from, the home addresses if you like,” Lewis told Abbott. “Not surprisingly you see a concentration down here and up here in Melbourne, and then to the west of the city of Sydney over here.”
He went on to say that the maps would be effective in targeting the government’s anti-radicalisation program.
“This obviously will inform very much some of the work that needs to be done around that planning,” Lewis said.
