AFP raids Border Force offices over leaks in au pair saga

AFP officers have raided the Australian Border Force offices in Canberra over leaks in the au pair saga.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Gary Ramage.

The Australian Federal Police has raided the offices of the Australian Border Force in Canberra after documents about the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s intervention in two au pair visa cases were leaked.

Sources have told The Australian it is alleged a person or people leaked from the Department of Home Affairs to the Labor Party.

The department has referred a leaked e-mail chain of correspondence between immigration officials, Mr Dutton’s office, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, Mr McLachlan’s second cousin who was due to host a French au pair and an AFL staffer to the AFP.

Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo warned in a Senate inquiry into the saga last month that if potentially unlawful disclosures were to continue it would “stab at the heart of public administration”.

The AFP carries out raids at the Home Affairs department as part of investigation into damaging au pair leaks, in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

“It’s really now a matter for the federal police to establish — if this is what’s occurred — both the exfiltration of the information from our network, to whom it was exfiltrated and what potentially happened to it thereafter,” Mr Pezzullo said.

The AFP confirmed it had received a referral from the department on 30 August 2018 “regarding an unauthorised disclosure of information”, which was being investigated.

“The AFP has undertaken enquiries and conducted a number of activities in relation to this investigation. As this investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further,” a spokeswoman said.

A department spokeswoman said it was a matter for the AFP.

Mr Dutton unleashed a ­blistering rebuke of Roman Quaedvlieg, the man he appointed as the nation’s first Australian Border Force commissioner, after he gave evidence to the au pair inquiry that the Minister labelled “entirely false and ­indeed fabricated”.

Mr Dutton has repeatedly denied he misled parliament when he said he did not have personal connections with the au pairs are their intended hosts.

Over the course of the government’s long investigation into allegations against me, I have referred multiple leaks to the AFP, directly & indirectly, including news of my sacking in The Courier-Mail before I knew. I’ve no current advice on their acceptance, status or progress.

— Roman Quaedvlieg (@quaedvliegs) October 11, 2018