BY: Matthew Doran
The raids are connected to documents leaked from the National Broadband Network (NBN) company, described as “concerning allegations of the unauthorised disclosure of Commonwealth information”.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the matter was referred to his agency in December 2015 by NBN Co, not the Federal Government.
The ABC has seen a warrant which suggests police are casting a wide net in their investigation.
It names Labor Senator Stephen Conroy, staffers, technology bloggers, and four major media organisations including the ABC.
It required the people subject to the warrant to hand over all documents relating to those people and organisations.
Does the election campaign affect the way the AFP operates?
Commissioner Colvin has stressed his agency’s independence from government.
“The timing of these investigations is determined not by external factors, but by the progress of the investigation,” Commissioner Colvin said.
Commissioner Colvin said the AFP first alerted the Government to the raids shortly after they began, by contacting Justice Minister Michael Keenan.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was told shortly after that, as was Senator Conroy.
Just because the Government is in caretaker mode does not mean the AFP’s operations are impacted.
What’s the link between NBN co and the Government?
NBN Co is a Government-owned corporation, charged with constructing the National Broadband Network.
The company’s constitution states “the company’s objects are to roll-out, operate and maintain a national wholesale broadband network while working closely with the Commonwealth during the implementation study in order to facilitate the implementation of Australian Government broadband policy and regulation.”
What does it mean that Labor has claimed parliamentary privilege on the seized documents?
Labor has claimed the documents seized by AFP during the raids are subject to parliamentary privilege.
about how to deal with carrying out search warrants where parliamentary privilege may be involved.
It says “parliamentary privilege applies to any document or other thing which falls within the concept of ‘proceedings of parliament'”.
That includes “documents sent to a senator, which the senator then determined to use”.
The documents are sealed in a bag to be considered by the Senate as to whether privilege does indeed apply.
However, there technically is no Senate to discuss the matter at the moment, which suggests the documents cannot be considered until after the election.
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This post originally appeared on ABC News.
Top Comments
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, said on Q&A that Australians don't need more than 25Mbps.
A quick check of international comparisons shows our near neighbour Singapore has an **average** speed of almost 100Mbps. Romania's average is over 60Mbps while Iceland enjoys average speeds over 43Mbps.
The maximum speed for home Internet plans in Portugal is 1Gbps (1000Mbps - 40-times greater than Pyne's preferred maximum), and 360 Mbp/s is widely available.
In 2015, before 4K video became a standard, the average download speed for ADSL services in New Zealand was more than 25Mbps. And NZ is already implementing a fibre-to-the-home network that will deliver **at least** 100Mbps to subscribers.
One can only wonder why a government that repeatedly insists we need to remain internationally competitive (hence the recently-announced top-end tax cuts) would saddle us with a communications network that is already of of date and which won't even make us competitive with the Kiwis, never mind our Asian neighbours!?!
The AFP felt compelled to raid Conroy's house and now we aren't going to be privy to the evidence until after the election?!!! If the ALP and Conroy have nothing to hide, show us now so that we can have full transparency. Surely it'll benefit Shorten and the ALP if everything is above board?? Hiding it under lock and key screams guilty to me.
The evidence is already out there. It's been published in the mainstream media. It shows Turnbull's "NBN" is a complete shambles that will provide a vastly inferior, third-rate "broadband" network with no savings in either time or money.
What did you think was in the documents?