ABC returns secret Cabinet documents found in sold-off filing cabinet

The ABC has agreed not to compromise national security and handed back up to 1500 top secret Cabinet documents.

ASIO secures cabinet files at an ABC office. Picture: ABC News

The ABC last night returned up to 1500 sensitive cabinet documents, following negotiations between the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and senior staff at the public broadcaster.

An agreement was reached to return the files, which were being held at ABC offices in Canberra, Brisbane and ­Melbourne.

The document bundles, which included classified files related to national security agencies, were returned after assur­ances were made to protect the ABC source.

ASIO officers took custody of the cache, which had been left in a filing cabinet, at about 9.30pm.

“The ABC and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet have agreed on the securing of and the return of the documents which were the subject of the ABC’s ­cabinet files reporting to the commonwealth,” the DPMC said.

“This has been achieved without compromising the ABC’s priority of protecting the integrity of its source and its reporting, while acknowledging the commonwealth’s nat­ional sec­urity interests.”

The Australian Federal Police had earlier accused the ABC of knowingly publishing a story based on “incomplete and outdated” documents, as Kevin Rudd launched legal proceedings against the broadcaster following publication of the files.

The allegations against the ABC came on the same day ASIO entered its Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne offices after the broadcaster revealed it had obtained hundreds of cabinet documents kept in two filing cabinets sold to an unknowing member of the public at an ex-government furniture shop in Canberra.

An ASIO officer retrieves the Cabinet documents last night. Picture: ABC News

With the documents dating back to the Howard era, the ABC ran a series of stories referencing them, including that a “secret government stocktake” showed the AFP had lost 400 national security files in 2008-13 under Labor.

The AFP said yesterday a September 2013 audit of cabinet records by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet identified several cabinet documents issued to the police were missing, but more than 90 per cent of those had since been found or confirmed to have been destroyed. An ABC spokeswoman said agencies had been given sufficient time to respond before publication.

The cabinet files included a document dated April 6, 2009, warning then prime minister Mr Rudd and several of his senior ministers of “critical risks” with the home insulation scheme, according to one ABC report.

Mr Rudd said yesterday the ABC had “lied” and had alleged he ­“ignored warnings on risks to the safety of installers of home insulations … The risks referred to … refer to financial and administrative risks for the commonwealth, not safety risks to workers”.

The documents are back in the hands of authorities. Picture: ABC News