SECRET government documents have been sold at a second-hand shop in Canberra containing details of the inner workings of five separate federal governments.
Thousands of pages of documents were purchased at the shop which sells ex-government furniture inside two locked filing cabinets.
The ABC, which has been publishing cabinet documents for the past three days, revealed this afternoon that the two filing cabinets were purchased for a “small charge” and is one of the “biggest breaches of cabinet security in Australian history”.
“Nearly all the files are classified, some as ‘top secret’ or AUSTEO’, which means they are to be seen by Australian eyes only,” the ABC says.
Cabinet papers are usually not publicly released until 20 years after their production.
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National security expert Clive Williams told News Corp the ABC could face legal repercussions if it did not hand the documents back to the government.
Mr Williams, who worked in Defence intelligence and security until 2002, was formerly the Director of Security Intelligence and is now a visiting professor at Australian National University College of Law, said the documents were the property of the government and that did not change after they were sold in the cabinets.
The broadcaster could also face legal repercussions if it published any classified material from documents marked top secret, he said.
Mr Williams said the government would seek to recover the documents as soon as possible, given they and allies would be concerned about the release of classified material.
He also said the government employee who certified the cabinets as empty, rather than the employee who sold the cabinets, could face repercussions if they could be identified in the investigation.
Meanwhile, National security expert Rory Medcalf has slammed the government employees who were so “sloppy” guarding classified material.
“The nation’s national security personnel work hard and diligently to prepare classified briefing material to serve the national interest,” the Head of ANU’s National Security College wrote on Twitter.
“It is an affront to their general professionalism that someone, somewhere was so sloppy with safeguarding it.”
Speculation in Canberra has been rife about the origin of the documents, which have been reported as “leaks”.
The ABC has declined to say who purchased the cabinets but reports “no one broke any laws”.
“They were sold off cheaply because they were heavy and no-one could find the keys,” the broadcaster said.
“A nifty person drilled the locks and uncovered the trove of documents inside.”
Over the past three days, the ABC has reported that Tony Abbott’s “razor gang” considered cutting welfare to under 30s in its 2014 budget, the details on Mr Morrison’s time as Immigration Minister, and that Kevin Rudd was warned about “risks” with the home insulation program before the deaths of four workers.
The documents did not detail if those risks were related to safety concerns.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has now launched an urgent investigation into the sale of the documents.
“The Secretary of PM&C has initiated an urgent investigation,” a PM&C spokesman said.
“As this investigation has commenced it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
The ABC said it chose to release sections of the documents because they “expose repeated security breaches of Australia’s most sensitive and classified documents and a seemingly casual attitude of some of those charged with keeping the documents safe”.
The broadcaster has chosen to withhold documents where there are national security concerns or to protect the privacy of public servants.
The ABC has refused to comment on what it will do with the pages; whether it would destroy them, keep them, or return them to government.
It also declined to say whether it would co-operate with the PM&C investigation.
KEVIN RUDD LAUNCHES LEGAL ACTION
The move comes as Former prime minister Kevin Rudd launched legal action against the ABC after it published details from a secret cabinet document related to his Labor government’s home insulation scheme.
The report stated he was warned about “a large number of critical risks” of the home insulation scheme before the deaths of four young men.
The former prime minister said the report yesterday which alleged he ignored warnings on risks to the safety of installers was a lie.
He announced via social media this morning that legal proceedings had commenced.
