By SID MARRIS

18mar02

POLICE and defence investigators may have trawled through records of an MP's telephone calls after intelligence agencies refused to bug his offices.

Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation director-general Dennis Richardson briefed the Opposition about an aborted proposal to tap the phone of then Labor frontbencher Laurie Brereton.

The Australian Federal Police and Defence were investigating leaks Mr Brereton received about Australia's knowledge of the Indonesia military's role in the violence in East Timor in 1999.

Attorney-General Daryl Williams had offered the briefing after reports surfaced of the proposal to tap Mr Brereton's phone last month.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean said yesterday he was "completely satisfied" that ASIO had acted properly.

Mr Crean said it was clear public servants were now riled at the political manipulation of their roles.

"This is the Government that creates a climate in which the regulations are changed in which it is easier to spy on people and then want you to believe it's got nothing to do with them," he said.

The Government says that at a meeting of officers investigating the leaks, a Defence official asked whether electronic surveillance was possible.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Robert Hill said at no stage did the Defence Department officially ask ASIO to bug Mr Brereton's office.

"Essentially what happened was someone from Defence asked whether that would be a possibility to bug the office of an opposition member and was told 'No, it's not a possibility and it would be breaking the rules'," the spokeswoman said.

ASIO is understood to have said such action was not part of its brief.

While the Government insists parliamentary telephones were not bugged, records of calls may have been accessed.

It is understood Labor is aware that investigators used phone records from Mr Brereton's office to draw up a list of interviews.

ASIO attended the meeting because investigators were also looking at other issues, such as the leak of information revealing the investigation itself and breaches at the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

The AFP later failed to get approval to raid Mr Brereton's office but raided his adviser's home on the morning after the Sydney Olympics opened.

Labor defence spokesman Chris Evans said it was possible the Government used other means to bug Mr Brereton's office.

"It's reassuring ASIO is assuring Australians that it didn't occur via them and that's good because it would have been illegal," he said. "But as I say, it is possible."

Democrats Senator Andrew Murray said the episode was alarming and a dangerous erosion of freedoms in Australia.