Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

They arrived in my office in Canberra on Friday afternoon. I was in Sydney on Friday afternoon. On the Wednesday, at the suggestion of the department secretary and the deputy secretary of the department, I contacted the commissioner of the Federal Police, because I had been advised that the member for Curtin had passed these documents to the AFP liaison officer and this was now a matter with the Federal Police, and for that to be referred as necessary to whichever jurisdiction may be involved in any investigation. I sought from the commissioner a briefing at that time on what the contents of those allegations were. I did not have them; they were not things that I could read at that time. I asked the commissioner whether it was appropriate for me to now raise those matters with the Attorney-General, which I did, and he vigorously denied those allegations on the matters that were raised in those documents.

In addition to that, the commissioner of the Federal Police advised all members of this place that, where we receive such documents, they should be forwarded to the Federal Police, because they are the appropriate and competent authorities to determine the veracity of any allegations. That is exactly what I did because I believe that the police are the appropriate authority to test such materials. I did not have a formal copy to read on the Wednesday, and, on the Friday, my formal copy was immediately forwarded to the Federal Police, where it should have been forwarded. I have been briefed—

An opposition member interjecting—

I have made no copies of these documents. The documents were provided to the Federal Police, and I was briefed on the contents of those documents by the police commissioner. So, based on that, I raised the matter with the Attorney-General, and that's where the matter stands.

See this speech in context