Former defence adviser revealed as target of AFP raids
A former senior government adviser has been raided by the AFP in Canberra.
Former senior government adviser Cameron Gill has been raided by Australian Federal Police in Canberra today, as police leave the former staffer’s home with garbage bags full of evidence.
Mr Gill was a senior adviser to former Liberal MP Mal Brough when he was minister for defence matériel and science in 2015, according to his Linkedin page and public Defence documents.
The Australian has confirmed that Mr Gill is married to Australia’s ambassador to Iraq, Joanne Loundes.
It is understood he worked for the Defence Department and been attached to various defence portfolios in recent years.
The AFP have refused to confirm if the raid on Mr Gill’s Griffith home is connected with raids made on journalists at News Corp Australia and the ABC back in June.
AFP officers today left Mr Gill’s home with garbage bags hours after first executing the search warrants on Wednesday morning.
Mr Gill’s lawyer Kamy Saeedi declined to formally comment when he left the home.
“It’s a very complex situation at the moment, there is a lot going on … it’s sensitive and I cannot comment,” he said.
The AFP has been under pressure in recent months for raiding the Sydney headquarters of the ABC and the Canberra home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst over national security leaks.
An AFP spokeswoman on Wednesday would not answer questions over whether the raid was linked to the investigations involving those journalists.
The AFP in August said it had identified the suspected leaker in the Smethurst case and was concerned about their position in the public service as Mr Pezzullo launched a scathing attack against the leak.
Campbell Reid, News Corp Australia’s group executive of corporate affairs, policy and government relations, said that today’s AFP raids we part of a process of “intimidation” by police.
“We have always said the AFP raids on journalists were not intended to intimidate journalists but the people who have the courage to talk to journalists.
“Today we are seeing that process of intimidation continue.”
Last week Mr Reid accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of hypocrisy over the Prime Minister’s concerns for writer Yang Hengjun’s incarceration in China but not with press freedom at home.
“I saw Mr Morrison in front of the microphones talking very compellingly about the predicament the Australian writer in China is in. Under arrest, accused of espionage; so I ask this question: Why is press freedom very important, and freedom of information important in China, and not very important in Australia?” Mr Reid asked at the Alliance for Journalists Freedom Summit.
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