Thousands of pages of Australia's top secret cabinet documents have been obtained following an extraordinary breach of national security.
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Cabinet documents are supposed to remain secret for at least 20 years so senior ministers can speak openly and frankly within the cabinet room.
However, the documents were sold in two locked filing cabinets, in a second hand shop where old government furniture is sold cheaply because they were heavy and no-one could find the keys.
The locks were then drilled.
The documents revealed include information such as that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) lost about 400 files, that codeword-protected documents were found in a former senator's office, and that Tony Abbott ignored advice and breached confidentiality - and more.
Some of the documents have been released by the ABC, which published reports on what it found.
Australian Federal Police lost 400 files
The cabinet documents contain details including an email exchange between the cabinet secretariat and the AFP, which revealed the AFP had lost 400 files between 2008 and 2013.
Those documents - not the same as the Cabinet documents - were from the powerful National Security Committee (NSC), which controls the country's security, intelligence and defence agenda.
The secretive committee also deploys Australia's military and approves kill, capture or destroy missions and are mostly marked "top secret" and "AUSTEO".
Troop deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, counter-terrorism operations, foreign relations and Australia's border protection were among the top-secret and sensitive issues decided in the five-year period.
The email exchange did not reveal any investigation by either the secretariat or the AFP into how the documents were lost, who lost them, or where they might be now. It also did not reveal the nature, nor the content of the missing NSC documents.
Rudd warned of home insulation 'critical risks'
Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and two senior Labor ministers were warned about "critical risks" of the home insulation scheme before the deaths of four young installers, the documents show.
The Energy Efficient Homes Package rolled out subsidised insulation, but was scrapped after the installers' deaths. Mr Rudd told a royal commission into the program the rollout would have been delayed had cabinet been warned of the safety risks.
"Right through until February 2010 ... each of the monthly reports said that the Energy Efficiency program of the government was on track," he said.
However, a report to cabinet from 6 April 2009 warned of "critical risks" associated with the program. It did not specify whether any of these were safety concerns.
"Many of these risks cannot be adequately managed in the lead-up to the July 1 start date. The timeline is extremely tight."
In response to The Cabinet Files, Mr Rudd told the ABC any assertion he was warned about safety risks was untrue.
"The Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program had unprecedented access to cabinet material and made no adverse finding against Mr Rudd," he said in a statement.
"Any assertion Mr Rudd was warned about safety risks to installers, or failed to act on such warnings, is completely baseless and untrue, as determined by the commission."
Tony Abbott ignored advice, breached confidentiality
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised an inquiry into Labor's home insulation scheme during the 2013 election campaign.
His decision once in office to break the century-old doctrine of cabinet confidentiality and hand over Labor's cabinet documents sparked the alarm of the opposition and past prime ministers.
At the time, the attorney-general said the decision was based on the advice of the AGS, but the ABC's found cabinet documents revealed both the AGS and the secretary of the prime minister's department warned Mr Abbott against it.
"We consider that producing cabinet-related documents to any court or tribunal … would not accord with legal practice and principle," the undated advice from Tom Howe QC, chief counsel at the AGS said.
"We are not aware of the Commonwealth ever having taken such an approach in relation to cabinet-related documents,"
Mr Abbott declined to comment.
Nearly 200 code-protected documents left in former senator's office
Nearly 200 top-secret code word protected and sensitive documents were left in the office of senior minister Penny Wong when Labor lost the 2013 election.
The 195 documents included Middle East defence plans, national security briefs, Afghan war updates, intelligence on Australia's neighbours and details of counter-terrorism operations.
All the documents were security classified, with several marked "top secret" and code word protected, which is the highest level of classification in Australia.
Ms Wong was the leader of the government in the Senate and a member of the NSC
The documents found in Senator Wong's office include:
- Defence plans to protect the United Arab Emirates from Iranian hostilities
- National security intelligence priorities
- Counter-terrorism intelligence planning documents
- Details of missile upgrades
- Profiles of terror suspects
- Issues with Australian Defence Force operations in Afghanistan
- Deficiencies in Defence security vetting
The Department of Finance investigated the security breach but took no further action because they had "no proof of who left them there".
Right to remain silent nearly abolished
The cabinet documents reveal then-attorney-general Philip Ruddock, under John Howard's government, pushed for a range of new offences while Mohammed Haneef was under investigation over the 2007 Glasgow terror attack.
The allegations were later disproven amid huge public controversy, and Dr Haneef was awarded compensation by the Australian government.
"I would also like NSC to consider whether amendments should be made to a suspect's right to remain silent to allow a court to draw adverse inferences in a terrorism trial where an accused relies on evidence which he or she failed to mention when questioned by police," Mr Ruddock wrote in his NSC submission.
The proposal was supported by the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, but rejected by the majority of the senior ministers in the NSC.
Income support ban for under-30s considered
Mr Abbott's expenditure review committee considered banning anyone under 30 from accessing income support ahead of the 2014 budget.
It requested then-social services minister Kevin Andrews look at how to ban "job snobs" from receiving the welfare payments.
In a document marked "protected", "sensitive" and "cabinet in confidence", Mr Andrews proposed three options to permanently or temporarily halt income support for job seekers under 30.
They included cutting off under-30s entirely, cutting off under-30s in areas with employment opportunities, and limiting income support to young people with a work history.
There was also an option to roll out an income-managed basics card to "lessen the harshness of the measure".
The most extreme proposal would have saved the government nearly $9 billion over four years.
But Mr Andrews, who is a strong factional ally of Mr Abbott, also anticipated a backlash.
He noted that there was already a crackdown on youth welfare factored into the 2014 budget and suggested any further changes be part of a broader review of welfare.
Secret negotiation documents for National Broadband Network
Among the cabinet documents were the National Broadband Network Co's 2009 secret strategy for negotiating with potential investors, a budget implications document and a plan for dealing with political attacks.
They revealed how desperate the then-Labor government was to have Telstra buy into the project.
"The strategy is … [for Telstra to] ultimately approach government to invest or use NBN Co's network on the government's terms."
The government is still the sole owner of NBN Co, which is classed as an asset for budget purposes.
With cost blow-outs and delays however, the government is now facing the prospect of having to write it into the budget, rather than persisting with privatisation.
Former Immigration minister sought power to prevent asylum seekers gaining protection visas
In late 2013, the then-immigration minister Scott Morrison was rushing through changes that would prevent any asylum seekers who arrived by boat from ever being granted permanent protection in Australia.
Advised that up to 700 asylum seekers "must" be granted permanent protection under the existing legislation, he requested alternative visa options.
In an unorthodox move, Mr Morrison agreed his secretary should write to the director-general of security to request the national security agency, ASIO, delay security checks so that people close to being granted permanent protection would miss the deadline.
- ABC
