Defence to investigate spying claims

Relations between Joel Fitzgibbon and Defence have sunk to a new low amid claims
department officials spied on his relationship with a Chinese-born family friend.
The Department of Defence disputes the claims but are investigating them nonetheless.
And the independent Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Ian Carnell, has
indicated he too may launch a probe.
"Mr Carnell is considering carefully those allegations and obtaining relevant
information prior to settling on an appropriate course of action," his office said.
Defence secretary Nick Warner has ordered an immediate investigation into
allegations, aired in Fairfax newspapers on Thursday, that defence officials probed
whether Mr Fitzgibbon's association with Chinese-Australian businesswoman Helen Liu
constituted a security risk.
Fairfax reported an official from the Defence Signals Directorate, the government's
highest level authority on computer security, accessed the minister's office
computer.
The leak is the latest episode in the fractious relationship between the defence
minister and his department, which has been in the spotlight again due to the
long-running Defence pay bungle.
While Mr Warner sought to play down claims of any covert investigation of the
minister, Mr Fitzgibbon acknowledged he'd put noses out of joint in the department
with his reform agenda.
"I am driving the biggest reform project in the history of the defence organisation
and I know that's really hard for some elements of that organisation," the minister
told reporters.
"But I'm doing so in close partnership with the chief of the defence force and the
secretary of my department and together we are determined to continue ... those much
needed reforms."
Mr Warner said he'd seen nothing to suggest department officers were spying on the
minister.
"I have seen no information to suggest there is any substance to any of the
allegations," he told reporters.
He has asked the Defence Security Authority to report to him within a week, and
provide an interim assessment of the matter as soon as possible.
Mr Warner said he and Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston first became
aware of the allegations in the media on Thursday morning.
He said there were no circumstances under which the department could secretly
investigate its minister.
"Defence doesn't act without authority of government on any matter," Mr Warner said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is in Washington as part of a two-week tour of the
United States and Britain, refused to be drawn into the defence row.
"I will wait to see the outcome of ... (the) investigation," he said.
Mr Rudd failed to fully endorse his minister but noted the history of tension
between defence ministers and their department.
"Plainly there are always tensions, well there have been for quite some time, within
or between defence ministers of the past and the defence department," he said.
"There's nothing particularly unusual about that."
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said the episode was more evidence that the
defence department lacked confidence in its minister, and he should be sacked.
"We need to have a defence minister in whom the Australian Defence Force has
confidence, in whom the Australian public has confidence and who can work
effectively with his department," he told reporters.
"Joel Fitzgibbon can do none of those things."
Former senior defence official Alan Behm said it was not standard procedure for a
department to investigate its minister.
Any such inquiry would have to be authorised through the prime minister's office and
be conducted through proper channels, he said.
"Whenever you have a situation where a department appears to act unilaterally ...
investigating the affairs of its minister, then there is a total breakdown in
trust."