Penny Wong ‘broke budget lock-up rules’

Treasury security intervened after Penny Wong reportedly broke budget lock-up rules.

Labor Senator Penny Wong during a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House. Picture: AAP.

Penny Wong, leader of the opposition in the Senate, reportedly broke official rules in the federal budget by taking confidential papers to her office before the lock-up ended, forcing Treasury security to intervene.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Senator Wong refused to leave her office when visited by security, who asked for the budget documents to be returned.

She is said to have slipped out of the lock-up, where budget documents are examined by media, politicians and other parties but not shared, 30 minutes before it ended.

Treasury documents were embargoed until 7.30pm, when Scott Morrison addressed parliament about the budget.

It has also been reported opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen and Labor MP Jenny Macklin were “argumentative” towards Treasury officials in the lock-up.

Three young women reported Mr Bowen and Ms Macklin to senior Treasury staff, while Labor accused the government of breaching protocol and not allowing them to remove documents half an hour early, as in previous years, to prepare for the Treasurer’s speech.

Mr Bowen said there was a “longstanding convention” MPs could leave the lock-up at 7pm, “including with their budget papers, which in many cases have notes and mark-ups”.

“This year, with no warning or consultation, members were told at 7pm they could not take their budget papers with them,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I will be using the budget estimates process to examine who ordered this unprecedented change.”

Treasury would not say whether it had launched a formal investigation into the alleged security breach.