The Australian Labor Party has termed the illegal accessing of a journalist's metadata by the Australian Federal Police as "shocking" and questioned why it was disclosed on a Friday afternoon when the Commonwealth Ombudsman was informed two days earlier.
AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin made the disclosure, confessing that some members of his force had illegally accessed a journalist's phone records in the course of an investigation into a leak.
Labor shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus was reported by The Guardian to have said that while it was good that the AFP reported the breach, the fact that it happened was clearly unacceptable.
Dreyfus made no mention of the fact that Labor had backed the passage of the metadata retention laws in 2015.
{loadposition sam08}But he said Attorney-General George Brandis and Justice Minister Michael Keenan should be also asked for an explanation about the incident, without the AFP alone having to take the blame.
AFP admitted today they misused metadata. Was inevitable because mandatory data retention invites mischief and mistakes. AW #auspol #politas
— Andrew Wilkie MP (@WilkieMP) 28 April 2017
"Both ministers must explain – when were they notified of the breach, and what immediate action did they take? Is there a legitimate reason for the public announcement being made two days after the breach was reported to the ombudsman?" Dreyfus said.
iTWire has contacted Dreyfus for any further comment.
Asked for his reaction, independent MP Andrew Wilkie, the man who blew the whistle on the use of flawed intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, provided only a brief statement which he made on Twitter.
His spokesman pointed iTWire to the tweet which read: "(The) AFP admitted today they misused metadata. (It) was inevitable because mandatory data retention invites mischief and mistakes."
iTWire has also contacted Senator Nick Xenophon for comment.
The metadata incident is the latest in a long line of screw-ups by the AFP.