The head of parliament's intelligence committee, James Paterson, stopped short of publicly calling out Defence Minister Peter Dutton for referencing classified information in a political attack against the opposition but insisted all MPs should heed warnings from ASIO.
National security has dominated discussions in federal parliament over the past week.
The government claimed Labor could not be trusted on China, while Labor senator Kimberly Kitching used parliamentary privilege to suggest a prominent Chinese-Australian political donor was the "puppeteer" behind a thwarted foreign interference plot.
It resulted in the head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, agreeing to a rare TV interview on the ABC'S 730 program, where he said it was "not helpful" when politicians weaponised national security and intelligence in the lead-up to an election.
Senior Liberal ministers insisted that warning was aimed at Labor politicians.
However, speaking on Insiders, Liberal senator James Paterson, the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said the message should be heeded by all.
"I take his warning very seriously and I think there has been a range of references to classified material both in parliament and in the media from a range of sources and we should be very mindful of the warning that he makes, he said.
"I think the point that the ASIO Director-General was making is that all political parties, all political actors, need to be very careful about that."
On February 11, Defence Minister Peter Dutton told the ABC there was evidence from "open source and other intelligence" that the Leader of the Opposition is China's pick in the upcoming election.
Senator Paterson was pushed on whether the Minister should have referenced intelligence material that he had seen.
PM attacks Labor over national security
Revelations that a Chinese warship pointed a laser at an Australian defence plane on Thursday have been used by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to further accuse the Labor party of not being equipped to handle national security matters.
While Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese condemned the incident and called it an "outrageous act of aggression," Mr Morrison said Labor's track record on national security is still of concern.
"The way Australia stands up to coercion and bullying and intimidation and threats is what my government has been doing," he told reporters on Sunday.
"That is why we have increased our defence capability spending.
"When we came to government, it was at its lowest level since before the start of the second world war."
Earlier in the week, Mr Morrison accused Labor's Richard Marles of being a Manchurian candidate but quickly withdrew the comment.
Senior ministers avoided questions about whether the slur was appropriate but Senator Paterson made it clear he did not believe the Labor frontbencher was a Manchurian candidate.
He was referencing a speech Richard Marles gave in China in 2019 and also questioned why the transcript was not on the Labor MPs website.
However, Senator Paterson avoided questions about whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison should publish all of his speeches, given that an address Mr Morrison gave to the Christian Churches congress has not been posted on his website.
In outlining why Labor leader Anthony Albanese was "weak" on China, Senator Paterson pointed to Labor's decision to cut defence funding when in government and referenced comments made by Paul Keating in 2019 when he suggested spy chiefs were "nutters" who needed to be sacked to fix relations with Beijing.
Mr Albanese on Sunday denied he takes advice from the former Labor leader.
"I have a different position from Paul Keating on China," he said.
"I've said that on a range of occasions, I speak for the Australian Labor Party," he said.
