The Australian federal police has said it will not investigate allegations the minister responsible for Centrelink unlawfully shared the private details of a welfare recipient with the media without their consent.

The human services minister, Alan Tudge, was told by federal police on Monday they would not be investigating the claims any further.

Labor asked the AFP in March to investigate whether Tudge had broken the law. Social security law makes it a criminal offence to release protected information about welfare recipients, although it can be done lawfully in limited circumstances.

“The Australian federal police will not be pursuing Labor’s allegations that I broke privacy law,” Tudge said in a statement on Monday.

Tudge said the AFP’s assistant commissioner made it clear that the information released by his office and prepared by his department was approved for release and was therefore not an unauthorised disclosure.

“The decision to end the consideration of this referral is no surprise,” Tudge said.

He branded Labor’s referral as a political stunt and part of a “scare campaign”.