The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has called on the government to explain why the Australian federal police was able to access a journalist’s private travel records from Qantas as the two parties square off over press freedom.
The call comes after reports this morning revealed that the travel records of the ABC reporter Dan Oakes were requested by the AFP as part of its investigation of the leak of classified documents into alleged misconduct among Australian troops in Afghanistan.
Albanese said the attorney general, Christian Porter, needed to explain the AFP’s actions given he had previously said journalists were not likely to face potential prosecution.
“I really think that the attorney general, Mr Porter, needs to explain the gap that’s there between what he says is happening and what is actually happening. He says that journalists aren’t the target of these investigations, but the fact that there was a demand by the AFP for records of flights from a journalist from Qantas shows that’s not the case,” Albanese said.
“We’re concerned about whistleblowers, as well as journalists, being targeted in a way that is not appropriate and the government needs to explain what the circumstances of these AFP demands were.”
According to an AFP statement obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, investigators approached Qantas asking for information about flights taken in 2016 by Oakes, one of two ABC reporters who reported on The Afghan Files for Four Corners.
The AFP statement, which is reportedly titled “Statement in the matter of R v Daniel Michael Oakes”, has led to speculation that the police were building a case against the journalist, which would be at odds with comments made by Porter in the aftermath of the raids.
Qantas has said that it complied with the AFP request in line with its legal obligations.
Labor and the Coalition have been at odds as to how parliament should respond to the police action, with the opposition’s push for a joint select committee inquiry into press freedom and whistleblowers not supported by the government.
Instead, the government has asked the parliament’s joint committee on intelligence and security to review the two raids.
Under the terms of the referral, PJCIS will examine the experiences of journalists and media organisations working in the beefed up security framework and whether the current laws require amendment.
