David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the Defence Security Authority vetting report.

This is a very, very important report. It is a report by the Inspector-General of Intelli­gence and Security commissioned by the Prime Minister. In March 2010, whistleblow­ers wrote to three government ministers through their local Labor member, the former member for Forde in Queensland. They set out a pattern of conduct in the granting and administration of security vetting that involved a number of things, including bullying and harassment. They also raised the issue of corrupted vetting practices.

Defence's response and the response of the members of parliament was to simply ignore them. But worse still the Defence report went on to treat them as if they were cranks in a most arrogant and offhand way. It was not until the Lateline program in May 2011 raised these issues that the whistleblowers were taken seriously and the Defence administrators and, indeed, those people higher up the chain were brought to any form of account to set out what had been going on. We now know that more than 20,000 security vettings have been compromised—that is, people who work in the Prime Minister's office, people who work with the Minister for Defence, people who guard bases. And let us not forget what happened with respect to the terrorism plot over Holsworthy. These compromised vettings include people who guard embassies, embassies that can be troubled in terms of their current and previous political histories. Defence Minister Smith says that he only heard about this in May 2011. I want him to clearly state that he did not have on his desk in any other shape or form any knowledge of this matter until that time. If he did, he is complicit in what is a shocking scandal of maladministration in a very important area that the public needs to have some confidence in as it goes to the government's credibility.

The Secretary of Defence, when this was raised with him in estimates, slapped it down, flicked it away and said that he was totally oblivious to the significance of the issue. He said on the record that a flaw in the data input did not necessarily lead to a flaw in the security clearance. We now know that the flaws in the clearances from Defence went all the way into the ASIO system. This department's maladministration not only corrupted its own processes but also, through the electronic transfer, corrupted the ASIO understanding and capacity to review who is who out there doing sensitive and important security based jobs. There are 5,000 top-secret security clearances that have been compromised. The simple question that we all must ask is: who is accountable? Who is responsible? There is nobody that this government has pointed to as being respon­sible. It is always a review, adverse findings and 'we'll fix it now'. Nobody is accountable. This is an absolute disgrace.

These whistleblowers were treated with contempt. They have now received the Inspector-General's report. The first line of that report is that there should be an ackno­wledgement that what the whistleblowers said from day one was true and correct. We owe them a debt of gratitude. The parliament owes these three brave people a great debt of gratitude for coming forward in the circum­stances. They were derided and treated as cranks. Indeed, when I first raised this issue in estimates I was told in no uncertain terms there were no workarounds; there were no compromised security vets. We now know that what I was told in estimates was completely and utterly wrong. If ever you want to see the smoking gun of a group of officials with no idea what had been going on, have a look at the questions and answers on this matter in the Senate estimates of last May. The evidence has been overwhelming that there has been endemic, entrenched maladministration.

But the point that I want to finish on is the inspector-general's report. It is damning, it is a scandal, it is a disgrace—but nobody is accountable. Not only have these three good citizens been treated appallingly but also nobody has been brought to account. This is the way this government bumbles and fumb­les and incompetently manages very import­ant and sensitive security matters in this country. It is an absolute art form in incom­petence. Of course, the minister says, 'Oh no, I know I did not know anything about it,' yet three of his colleagues were told 12 months before. I was told at Senate estimates, 'Oh no, Senator, you've got that wrong.'

The Prime Minister was asked to commission this report because these three might have been in breach of the law disclos­ing what they disclosed. The inspector-general has the power of a royal commis­sioner. The Prime Minister had to convene this review and, as I say, it is damning. The Black report that we have had in Defence recently says there is a crisis in accounta­bility in the Department of Defence. I must say I think it is going to improve with the new secretary and the CDF. But somebody, surely, must be accountable for this. This has cost a lot of money. People have been ignored in circumstances where alarm bells seriously should have gone off. This report makes fascinating reading as to a level of incompetence that is Olympic gold medal class.

I seriously cannot believe that this is not front-page news on most newspapers. There are 5,000 top secret security vets that have been compromised. Several thousand of them have been worked through, but we are two or three or four years away from resolving what has gone on here. It beggars belief, and the minister was on television last night saying, 'Look, people have made mist­akes and we all bat on.' It is just appalling and it fits wholly and solely into the track record and the performance standards of this government. It is just a disgrace.

Question agreed to.