The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, is in the process of investigating the matter but MacGibbon, who now runs a security consultancy, said in a phone interview today that this investigation was far too limited as it was only looking for breaches of the Privacy Act.

Questions have been raised as to whether Senator Conroy beat up his statements as part of a personal vendetta against Google following the search giant's stringent opposition to the Government's internet filtering plans.

Google claimed its Street View cars intercepted personal data by mistake but Senator Conroy said the move was deliberate, and pointed to criminal investigations already underway in Germany centring on "illegal data collection".

It comes after Senator Conroy in a Senate Estimates hearing this week accused Google of creating "the largest privacy breach in history across Western democracies".

"If you suck down email, voice or other traffic from essentially the internet, which is the same as a telecommunications line, and you do it intentionally and you're unauthorised in doing it, then you could be in breach of the Telecommunications Interception Act ... which carries potential criminal charges," he said.

"I'd expect that there would be at least some cursory look from a policing point of view. If there hasn't been at this stage, why not? Does the police believe there was no offence and if so, how do they know?"

A spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said today that the Government was awaiting the outcome of the Privacy Commissioner's investigation. She noted that no evidence had yet been provided to suggest that there were breaches of the Telecommunications Interception Act.

Greens Communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said in a phone interview today: "The minister can put his money where his mouth is and refer the matter to the AFP, or he can withdraw the statement and admit that maybe in the heat of the moment Tony Abbott's not the only one who goes a bit too far sometimes."

Similarly, in Senate Estimates this week, Senator Mary Jo Fisher accused Senator Conroy of "hiding behind Karen Curtis" by not referring the matter to police.