‍SENATOR THE HON JAMES MCGRATH

SHADOW SPECIAL MINISTER OF STATE

SHADOW MINISTER FOR URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND CITIES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS

SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND

MEDIA RELEASE

SENSITIVE PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGED DOCUMENTS HANDED TO CONTRACTOR WITHOUT PROPER SECURITY CLEARANCE

1 December 2025

Senior officials from the Department of Parliamentary Services are refusing to admit it was a mistake to allow a third-party contractor administrator-level access to the internal APH IT system without first checking their security clearance status.

It follows revelations that the contractor in question did not hold the required Negative Vetting 1 security clearance, despite assurances to the contrary provided by Secretary Jaala Hinchcliffe in Estimates hearings last month.

Under questioning from Coalition Senators, Ms Hinchcliffe, Deputy Secretary Nicola Hinder and Labor’s President of the Senate Sue Lines insisted it was not unusual for temporary access at that level to be granted without additional security vetting – despite multiple internal and government-wide policies stating otherwise. The department’s own expert ICT team had warned senior executives that the proposed activity carried an extreme risk.

Shadow Special Minister for State, Senator James McGrath, said he was astounded the Secretary and Deputy Secretary were still downplaying the seriousness of the revelations.

“There is no question that this is an extraordinary failure of leadership and judgment by the top two senior officials in DPS,” Senator McGrath said.

“In my 11 years in the Parliament I have never seen this level of blatant negligence.

“Not only have we uncovered that sensitive information and parliamentary privileged information was extracted and accessed by someone without the proper security clearance, but we have also been told by DPS that there is ‘nothing to see here’.

“We have launched an inquiry to get to the bottom of this but the actions and blasé attitude of this department and it’s senior leadership has put parliamentarians and ultimately Australians at risk.” said Senator McGrath.

ENDS

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MEDIA CONTACT:

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