Xenophon questions US snooping

INDEPENDENT Senator Nick Xenophon says the federal government is "sleepwalking" during concern that US groups are spying on Australians.

SENATOR Nick Xenophon says the federal government must establish whether any Australians have been spied on by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

The independent senator has also called on the government to disclose the extent of surveillance of phone and email records by Australian security agencies, often working in concert with the NSA.

His comments follow reports in France that 70 million pieces of French telephone data were recorded by the NSA, prompting condemnation from the nation's interior minister.

"This kind of surveillance is shocking and the Australian government should be shocked by it too," Senator Xenophon said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In Britain, the US, France, Brazil and Mexico there is public outrage over this level of snooping, but in this country the major parties are sleepwalking on this issue.

"These revelations show that government assurances of adequate oversight are simply not credible and assertions that all this is legitimate intelligence in accordance with Australian law are no comfort either."

Senator Xenophon will convene a November summit in Canberra on the future of investigative journalism in the era of mass surveillance.

MPs, journalists, legal experts and academics will gather at parliament house.