CONTROVERSY Peter Dutton defends penalties for journalists

Canberra: Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says there are good reasons some government agency information is secret, after federal Police raided two media outlets.

Mr Dutton has stressed there’s nothing new about the idea that a journalist can go to jail for publishing top secret government documents, saying the suggestion there should be no penalty goes against “tradition”.

Asked whether he would be comfortable if that happened, the Home Affairs minister suggested the priority was the leaking of highly classified documents. “I’m concerned that if people are leaking top-secret documents that that can affect our national security,” he told Nine’s Today programme yesterday.

The Australian Federal Police hasn’t ruled out laying charges following back-to-back raids this week involving two media outlets.

Federal Police are investigating not only the leaking of documents by Commonwealth officers but also the publication of the materials following referrals from - according to Mr Dutton - the Defence Department secretary and the director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate.

Search warrants were executed on the Canberra home of News

Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the Sydney headquarters of the ABC. The ABC was raided over 2017 stories on allegations Australian soldiers may have carried out unlawful killings in Afghanistan, based on leaked Defence papers.

Ms Smethurst’s home was raided over the 2018 publication of a leaked plan to allow the ASD to spy on Australians.

Mr Dutton, the minister responsible for the AFP, says the laws that can put journalists behind bars for publishing stories with top secret information date back many years.

“That there should be no penalty or consequence for that would go against tradition in our country that spans back many, many decades and the same case in other democracies around the world,” he said.

“There are good reasons and long-standing reasons why a country like us or New Zealand would classify documents in such a way.

“The federal Police have an obligation to investigate a matter that’s been referred to them.”

But he insisted there were legal protections for whistleblowers and that the government defended media rights.

“We do have protections enshrined in law and we value a very healthy fourth estate. There’s no question of that.”