AFP confirms jail time a possibility for media tip off on AWU raids
AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin has revealed more about ongoing investigations into leaks, as he gave more detail about a probe into a potential media tip-off of a raid on trade union offices.
National
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AUSTRALIA’S federal police have revealed anyone found guilty of tipping off media to police raids on union offices last year faces two years’ jail.
A senior media adviser for Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash resigned last year after admitting to alerting reporters to the AFP raid on Australian Workers’ Union offices in Sydney and Melbourne in October.
The AFP did not confirm who it was investigating over the tip-off today but said staff in two ministerial offices had been interviewed, along with members of the Registered Organisations Commission and the Fair Work Commission.
AFP officers had also interviewed other members of the AFP as part of the investigation.
Senior AFP officers were questioned about the raids in a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra today.
“We will always be concerned, despite what people sometimes think about media exposure of police activity — it puts our officers’ lives in danger,” AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the hearing.
The hearing was told the AFP launched an investigation into a potential media tip-off the day after the raid as reporters were waiting at the offices when they arrived.
Police did not wait for a request from the Minister or ROC to begin the investigation.
They also revealed the investigation was one of 50 police inquiries into the unauthorised disclosure of government information in the past five years.
The crime carries a maximum penalty of two years’ jail.
Thirty investigations are still ongoing.
The hearing was told the investigation into the tip-off was expected to be finalised shortly.
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