Former Defence minister and Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon says it's "absolutely possible" that the Rolex watches given to Tony Abbott and former ministers Stuart Robert and Ian Macfarlane by a Chinese businessman could have been bugged.

Intelligence sources also said the issue of China actively targeting Australian MPs is one actively discussed in the intelligence community and that at the very least, gifts of any kind should always be checked.

Left Rolex is real. Right Rolex is fake.

Mr Fitzgibbon said on Thursday that when he was Australia's Defence Minister between 2007 - 2009 he gave every gift he ever received to the then Defence Signals Directorate (now Australian Signals Directorate ASD) for X-raying.

"When I was Defence Minister, if I was given so much as a USB drive, I'd hand it over to DSD," Mr Fitzgibbon told Fairfax Media.