Labor says the prime minister needs to explain why ‘top-secret documents’ were used as props during visit to agency’s headquarters in Canberra

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Labor has issued prime minister Tony Abbott with a please explain over how apparently classified Asio documents were filmed and broadcast during an official photo opportunity at the security agency’s Canberra headquarters.

The documents contain a map that highlights the Australian hotspots where radicalisation is more likely to occur in Australia’s two largest cities.

Asio chief Duncan Lewis laid out the maps during a briefing with Abbott and justice minister Michael Keenan at an official event attended by journalists, photographers and camera operators on Wednesday.

“This is a map which shows the two cities of Melbourne and Sydney, where fighters who’ve gone off to the Middle East have emanated from, the home addresses if you like,” Lewis told Abbott. “Not surprisingly you see a concentration down here and up here in Melbourne, and then to the west of the city of Sydney over here.”

He went on to say that the maps would be effective in targeting the government’s anti-radicalisation program.

“This obviously will inform very much some of the work that needs to be done around that planning,” Lewis said.

An Asio spokesman admitted to the ABC on Wednesday that the documents were not for publication, marked “official use only”.

Shadow assistant defence minister David Feeney wants urgent clarification on whether the documents were classified, adding that Labor never used “top-secret material as props”.

The timing is a major embarrassment for the government, coinciding with the introduction of national security laws that strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they are accused of terrorism.

“How can it be that the prime minister who tells us day after day that he’s at the heart of a very serious security conversation ... can suddenly be in a meeting being appraised of sensitive material and not recognise it for the sensitive material that it is?” Feeney asked reporters on Thursday.

“How can his own instincts, which he tells us are very finely honed, not ring with alarm bells when being briefed with material that is secret in full view of our cameras?”

Liberal backbencher Craig Laundy, whose western Sydney seats takes in many of hotspots shown in the map, said he is aware of the problem of radicalisation.

“This is a known issue,” he told Sky News. “We know where these areas are... and this should be called for what it is, a beat up.”