Former ministerial staff took classified documents from Services Australia in the wake of last year’s election loss, Labor has suggested in Senate estimates.
Under the protection of parliamentary privilege, the Labor senator Anne Urquhart said she had been told two staff from former minister Linda Reynolds’ office were investigated and that the agency detected the office “transferring a large volume of data off the government network”.
Reynolds, who was government services minister when the Coalition lost power, said she had previously raised the issue herself, that Urquhart’s comments were “highly pejorative” and that she would welcome the debate if Urquhart “would like to go out and repeat those allegations outside of privilege”.
In the community affairs estimates hearing, Urquhart said she had been told two of Reynolds’ former staff were investigated, to which the Services Australia chief executive officer, Rebecca Skinner, replied that she had chosen not to confirm the number of people for privacy reasons.
Urquhart then asked if it was correct that the investigation “relates to the staff members’ involvement in the theft of classified documents that were misappropriated by Senator Reynolds’ office”. Skinner said the matters related to “information management”.
“I understand that in the days after the 2022 federal election, when Senator Reynolds and her Liberal party colleagues were voted out, she was packing up her ministerial offices. Services Australia detected that Senator Reynolds’ office was transferring a large volume of data off the government network,” Urquhart said.
“So basically, Senator Reynolds’ office was emailing a large volume of official documents from government email accounts to a private Gmail account.
“I understand the documents in question were marked with the classification ‘official’ and included detailed information about commonwealth Services Australia and its operations, including, but not limited to, complete volumes of senate estimates, briefings, question time briefs and other official documents.”
Urquhart asked if her understanding was correct, to which Skinner said in all cases the matters related to information management and “improper information management”. Skinner said the agency took the management of government classified information “extremely seriously” and it was expected that the information remained in government systems “where it can be properly protected”.
“[A] range of things can occur if information leaves the protections of the government system and goes into an environment that’s unprotected and a range of things can occur,” she said.
Urquhart then said she was told the staff members felt they had to go along “with the theft of the classified documents” because they were directed to do so by Reynolds.
Skinner declined to answer, while department of social services secretary, Ray Griggs, agreed with Reynolds that she had raised some “general issues” around staffing and codes of conduct in estimates last year.
“If Senator Urquhart would like to go out and repeat those allegations outside of privilege, I would welcome the debate,” Reynolds said.
Urquhart then suggested Services Australia consider referring Reynolds’ conduct to the soon-to-be-established national anti-corruption commission, which Skinner took on notice.
Reynolds said: “I would ask Senator Urquhart to withdraw some of the inflammatory language that she has used because [it’s] unparliamentary and … highly pejorative and … simply not true.” Urquhart said she wasn’t sure her words were unparliamentary or defamatory but that she would withdraw if they were.
“I thank Senator Urquhart for that, because Senator Urquhart did accuse me of illegal conduct,” Reynolds said.
