Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne for his question, noting that the Minister for Justice has had to leave the chamber to deal with some issues and has asked me to answer that question.

We deal with this issue all the time. There is nothing new about the concept of a journalist understanding that an operation is of significant national interest, whether it is an operation by Defence, intelligence agencies, Australian Federal Police or ASIO. I am yet to think of a single instance that I have come across in my prior life in parliament or as a minister, where journalists did not know and did not have clarity that an operation, be it a covert operation or an operation of some military or security significance, was occurring. The idea that a national-level journalist would not understand that a covert operation—such as the operations of a few weeks ago, involving over 800 police, ASIO officers and others—was occurring and therefore the journalist publicly reported it is absurd. The notion that a journalist would have information that something profound is happening and they did not know it was a covert operation, did not know it would contain or create risks if it was compromised, or did not have the wherewithal to call an appropriate minister or head of an agency, is simply not something that occurs with professional journalism in this country.

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