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By SJA Jafri (Bureau Chief Australia)
CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has dismissed concerns about a police raid on a News Corp journalist’s home more than a year after a story she reported.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers spent hours raiding Annika Smethurst’s Canberra home yesterday, alleging there had been an unauthorized leak of “national security information” in a story she wrote in April 2018.
The AFP said the story included information classified as an official secret.
The Prime Minister — who is in London for his first meeting with the Queen — initially said the raid was an ongoing matter for the AFP and police were better placed to comment but when asked if he was concerned at a journalist’s home being raided, the Prime Minister said “it never troubles me that our laws are being upheld”.
Smethurst’s story, which included photographs of government documents, said the Home Affairs and Defence departments were considering giving spy agencies greater surveillance powers.
The story alleged new powers, if adopted, would go to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to secretly access bank records, emails and text messages without leaving a trace.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said suggestions the Government had orchestrated the raid were “utterly untrue”. He said the AFP might have told the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who was in Sri Lanka when the raid occurred, about the raid prior to it happening.
Porter described the raid as an information-gathering exercise for the AFP.
“The investigation is not about the journalist per se. It’s about the disclosure of information,” the Attorney-General said.
The Defence Department referred the leak to the APF on April 29, 2018, the same day News Corp published the story.
Morrison refused to comment on whether he supported the proposal Home Affairs and Defence bureaucrats were alleged to be discussing in Smethurst’s story.
He said he supported the free press and argued the raid was not an attack on that.
“Australia believes strongly in the freedom of the press and we have clear rules and protections for freedom of the press,” Morrison said.
“There are also clear rules protecting Australia’s national security and everybody should operate in accordance with all of those laws passed by our Parliament.
“I support the powers that the agencies have under our laws.”
ASD collects and assesses foreign intelligence information before passing it on to Australia’s domestic and foreign spy agencies.
The agency does not collect information on Australian citizens, but some senior public servants want to change that.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles wants Dutton to explain why the raid was necessary.
He said it was a significant development for police to raid a journalist’s home in a nation that valued press freedoms.
