"Just as we would not tolerate someone from the Prime Minister's Office walking into one of our members' bookstores, taking books without paying and handing them out in the street, we condemn the piracy of e-books," said Robbie Egan, president of the Australian Booksellers Association. Hardie Grant has identified a senior adviser in the Prime Minister's office who boasted of distributing the pirated e-book to "millions" of people in the days before the publication of the memoir, A Bigger Picture, on Monday. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age contacted the senior adviser several times over the weekend but he declined to comment, while the Prime Minister's press office declined to answer a series of questions over the affair. Mr Turnbull said the adviser had admitted sending the pirated book to 59 people, while the government said he had apologised for doing so. Hardie Grant chief executive Sandy Grant said the firm would press the matter this week and could subpoena Senator Payne after her comments on the ABC's Insiders program saying she "received and deleted" a copy of the e-book.

Illegal copies of Malcolm Turnbull's new book were sent to senior ministers. "When I watch a senior government minister saying they received stolen goods but can't help us know where they came from, you despair," Mr Grant said. "The bookshops in their electorates are closed or struggling, our staff are working reduced hours or being stood down and they seem to see that theft as something they can ignore. Would they ignore someone stealing from the local servo?" Mr Grant said the adviser to Mr Morrison had made "certain admissions" to be pursued along with the referral to the police. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have chosen not to name Mr Morrison's senior adviser for legal reasons but put questions to him and to the Prime Minister's press office about whether he distributed the pirated copies. "The Prime Minister's office will not comment on legal proceedings," a spokesman for Mr Morrison said. "Staff have been reminded of their obligations under copyright law, and of the high standards of conduct expected of them."

Mr Morrison's press office did not answer questions about whether any other government staff members or ministers had distributed the pirated e-book. Asked if anyone in Mr Morrison's office had taken action to remove pirated copies or examine what had happened, the Prime Minister's press secretaries also declined to answer. The Prime Minister has been a vocal supporter of copyright in the past and used global talks last year to urge China and others to honour the law. "Intellectual property theft cannot be justified," Mr Morrison said in a speech last June. Australian Publishers Association chief executive Michael Gordon-Smith said publishers were "fighting to survive" during the coronavirus crisis and needed governments to honour copyright and obey the law.