Legal advice on telephone taps controversy stored as secret file

LEGAL advice that led to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland being cleared over leaking telephone tap intelligence is being kept secret.

LEGAL advice that led to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland being cleared over leaking telephone tap intelligence is being kept secret.

The telephone tap, an act that caused Victoria's most expensive undercover operation to collapse, is being kept in the federal Attorney-General's Department.

A document trail released to The Australian after a Freedom of Information request to the department shows there was no police investigation into Mr Overland, a former senior officer of the AFP.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland, however, was given regular speaking points by department advisers to help him respond to questions about Mr Overland's conduct.

The legal advice to the department, provided by criminal lawyer Peter Hastings QC, has also been provided to Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus.

An affidavit sworn late last month by senior public servant Catherine Smith, from the department's Telecommunications and Surveillance Law Branch, states that release of the confidential communications over Mr Overland's conduct in releasing the telephone taps "could cause limited damage to the commonwealth, the government, commercial identities or members of the public".

Ms Smith described three sensitive legal documents -- her preliminary advice, a request for advice from Mr Hastings, and his advice -- as part of a sensitive file with a cover "clearly marked on the exterior 'in confidence'."

Her affidavit states that "physical removal or transmission of information from the file must only be by hand between people who have the 'need to know'."

"Physical storage of the file must be in a lockable commercial grade cabinet and electronic storage of information must only be on the department's secure computer network with 'protected' status."

The affidavit is part of the department's bid to prevent former Victoria Police officer Paul Mullett, who has accused Mr Overland of being a serial leaker and of breaching the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, from finding out how Mr Overland was cleared.

Mr Overland, a former principal adviser to the then justice minister Duncan Kerr in the Keating government, has admitted disclosing intelligence from a telephone tap in Operation Briars, but denied he did it for an "improper purpose" -- to prevent an embarrassing rumour about himself being aired on morning radio in Melbourne. However, his own affidavit states otherwise.

Mr Mullett, who wants an inquiry into an operation launched by Mr Overland that destroyed the careers of Mr Overland's rivals, has persuaded the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to hear his argument that the documents should not remain concealed.

Independent senior counsel have described Mr Overland's disclosure of intelligence from the telephone tap as a "clear breach", however, the legal advice by Mr Hastings was cited by the department as a clearance.