The independent senator Nick Xenophon is pressing for answers about whether Australian parliamentarians are being watched by intelligence agencies in the wake of revelations in the Guardian about the US Prism programme.

Xenophon asked the foreign minister, Bob Carr, whether any email addresses were exempt from the Mainway, Marina, Nucleon or Prism programmes.

"For example, are the official or unofficial email addresses of members of parliament exempt? What about internet metadata or content from parliamentary logons?" he asked during Thursday's question time.

Carr said the government did not comment on intelligence matters, but that there was a strong legal framework to protect Australians.

"Intelligence Services Act agencies such as the defence signals directorate, to which Senator Xenophon refers, are required by law to obtain specific authorisation either from the minister for defence or the minister for foreign affairs to produce intelligence on an Australian. In matters relating to threats to security, the attorney-general must also support the approval," Carr said.

"All such activities are independently examined by the inspector-general of intelligence and security to ensure that authorisations are conducted in accordance with this law."

Xenophon argued that Carr had not provided a specific answer to his question. Carr said he had, and did not intend to comment further.

Clinton Fernandes, an intelligence analyst interviewed by ABC, , said there were questions to answer about surveillance undertaken in Australia via data supplied by telecommunications companies - along the lines of the US National Security Agency's Prism programme.

"What has not been released is whether Telstra, Optus or IINet also have secret arrangements or whether the defence signals directorate is, without their knowledge, intercepting all their emails as well," Fernandes said.

Asked whether Australia would follow a similar practice to that followed by spy agencies and communications corporations in the US, Fernandes said: "It's a reasonable deduction to make."