Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. It goes to national security issues, and, on national security, there are two priorities. The first priority is, of course, keeping the public safe. The second and related principle is that we engage with the Australian Federal Police and the national intelligence agencies. We don't go out there and brief about National Security Committee meetings. We don't discuss those details, because it's an ongoing investigation. What you do when you have an ongoing investigation is that you take the advice of the Australian Federal Police and the ASIO director-general, and that is precisely what I have done the whole way through.

Now, the Leader of the Opposition always has briefings made available when they're requested. He has not requested a briefing at this time. He said on Sunday that he'd had text messages with the ASIO director-general. When asked by David Speers what was in those text messages, he quite rightly refused to say, because that's how you deal with these things. This isn't some game, and it should not be about politics. And, quite frankly, it is astonishing—

See this speech in context