George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

If I may say so, Senator Conroy, even by your standards that is an extraordinarily foolish question. I attended, along with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the Minister for Justice, a briefing at ASIO headquarters yesterday. We attended as guests of ASIO and were hosted by the Director-General of Security, Duncan Lewis.

In relation to the reports, I have seen in this morning's media and on the television last night that maps were displayed. They were—I was there, as you may have seen from the television pictures. I can do no better than to acquaint you with what the Director-General of Security has said about the matter today. This is what General Lewis has said:

There has been reporting in some quarters of the media regarding the sensitivity of documents used in briefing the Prime Minister yesterday. The Director-General of Security confirms the documents used in the briefing were not the subject of a national security classification. The documents were carefully edited and were unclassified. The content of the documents did not compromise national security.

Those are not my words; they are the words of the Director-General, General Lewis.