Officials didn't investigate Fitzgibbon

A defence internal inquiry has found no evidence whatsoever to support media reports
that defence officials hacked into the computer of Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon
to conduct a clandestine investigation.

Still to emerge is a separate report of an inquiry conducted by the Inspector
General of Intelligence and Security, although the defence report appears to
indicate there's very little more to uncover.
The initial news story was published in Fairfax newspapers in March, sparking a
media storm with comments that it showed the minister was on such poor terms with
his own department that some officials found it necessary to conduct their own
inquiries into the relationship between Mr Fitzgibbon and Chinese businesswoman
Helen Liu.
Defence department secretary Nick Warner said the defence inquiry, conducted by the
Defence Security Authority Intelligence and Security Group, was comprehensive,
involving 1,721 people, 1,368 statutory declarations and 641 interviews.
It involved examination of the phone records and databases of the Defence Security
Authority, Defence Signals Directorate and Defence Intelligence Organisation and
found nothing about Ms Liu.
"It is extraordinary, actually, that spurious and unsubstantiated allegations of
this sort could for two months be reported as fact," he told reporters.
"The allegations are pure fiction, a fiction that has attacked the integrity of the
Department of Defence and attacked the integrity of the ADF (Australian Defence
Force) and have the potential to damage important institutions that protect
Australia's security."
Mr Warner said it would be expected that had someone conducted a clandestine
investigation and hacked into the minister's computer, some signs of their intrusion
into the defence computer system would have remained.
Or that someone somewhere in defence had heard something about like that occurring.
"There were no signs left behind and none of the people we interviewed, none of the
people who signed stat decs suggested at all that there was any substance to the
claim that rogues have been involved," he told reporters.
Mr Warner said he was concerned that spurious media allegations morphed into facts
and were then reported as facts.
He said the media allegations were pure fiction but they were still serious and had
to be treated seriously.
"And they had to be very seriously investigated and they have been," he said.
A spokesman for Mr Fitzgibbon said the minister accepted the finding of the defence
investigation.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull repeated his call for the minister to be sacked
for incompetence.
"I'm not in a position to contradict the results of the inquiry," he told Sky News.
"(But) the fact of the matter is Joel Fitzgibbon has been repeatedly incompetent."
Mr Fitzgibbon hadn't disclosed gifts and trips to China, and also failed to fix the
SAS pay bungle earlier this year without the help of outside auditors, Mr Turnbull
said.
Despite Mr Warner's stinging criticism, Fairfax is standing by its story.
The Age's acting editor-in-chief Mark Baker rejected Mr Warner's claim that the
allegations were "pure fiction".
"I don't think Mr Warner is in a position to make a statement like that," he told
ABC Radio.
"The findings ... were basically the defence department investigating itself.
"We're still awaiting the findings into this matter by the Inspector-General of
Intelligence (and Security)."
Mr Baker denied the media reports were designed to damage Australia's security
institutions.
"This is about raising very serious issues about one of the most senior members of
the government."