The Australian federal police says it has spoken to government frontbenchers Christopher Pyne and Wyatt Roy as part of its investigation into the release of the former Speaker’s diary.
Mal Brough stood aside as special minister of state in December, more than a month after the AFP raided his Sunshine Coast home, citing a forthcoming interview with the police and a lack of certainty about how long the investigation would take.
The AFP said it was yet to complete its investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of the former Speaker Peter Slipper’s official diary, but confirmed it had been speaking to the three federal government MPs.
“Mr Brough, Mr Pyne and Mr Roy are assisting police with inquiries,” the AFP said on Monday.
Pyne is the minister for industry, innovation and science and the leader of the house, while Roy is the assistant minister for innovation.
Pyne’s spokesman said the minister “had an informal discussion with the AFP about the matter late last year”. Roy’s office declined to comment on the contact with police, but it is understood it was also of an informal nature.
The AFP said it had also spoken to Slipper’s former staffer James Ashby and understood he was seeking legal advice.
Ashby launched the sexual harassment case against Slipper in 2012 that contributed to his downfall as Speaker of the House of Representatives but was later dropped.
The former staffer has previously described speaking to Roy, who in turn sought advice from Pyne.
In an interview with the Australian in December, Ashby said Roy “then called me back and I went and saw him in his office and he presented me a sheet of paper with instructions of what I should do, and one of the first steps was to get a copy of the office diary. That is how I came to be printing off a copy of the digital diary – it was evidence in my case.”
Roy has previously confirmed seeking advice from Pyne about how someone could make a sexual harassment complaint. Roy told Sky News he suggested Ashby “diarise the events that are happening”.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, welcomed the developments in the investigation.
“I think it is long overdue for Christopher Pyne and Wyatt Roy to come clean on their role in the Peter Slipper/Mal Brough scandal,” he said.
Guardian Australia revealed in September 2015 that the AFP was still actively investigating the diary issue, a day after Brough was sworn in as a minister.
The controversy was revived a year earlier when the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes program broadcast a lengthy interview with Ashby. The journalist Liz Hayes also asked Brough: “Did you ask James Ashby to procure copies of Peter Slipper’s diary for you?”
He replied: “Yes I did.”
This exchange was critical to the controversy in the final parliamentary fortnight of 2015, when Brough implied the program had selectively edited the question.
After an extended transcript was released, Brough apologised to parliament “if my statement yesterday unwittingly added to the confusion rather than clarifying the matter”.
He then told parliament a categorical “no” when Labor asked the same question posed by Hayes about whether he asked Ashby to procure copies of the diary.
Brough withstood the parliamentary pressure and kept his job into the summer recess, only to stand aside on 29 December – the same day Jamie Briggs resigned as minister for cities and the built environment over “inappropriate” conduct towards a public servant in Hong Kong.
The AFP said it took the investigation “extremely seriously” and was conducting it in a “thorough” manner. “As this investigation remains ongoing, it is not appropriate to comment further,” it said.
Malcolm Turnbull is due to announce a frontbench reshuffle but has been awaiting an announcement by the leader of the Nationals and the deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, about his political future. Parliament is set to resume on Tuesday without a resolution of the matter.
