Docs on a plane: Staff retrained over lost cabinet bag
Papers being carried by a staffer travelling with then-senator Murray Watt were left on a plane during a flight home in July 2023.
Minutes after getting off a plane in Doha, an Australian government staffer urgently alerted officials a locked bag containing classified cabinet documents was missing.
The papers were being carried by the staffer travelling with Senator Murray Watt, the then-agriculture minister, on a flight home from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in July 2023.
The curious case of the missing documents was first made public in early October and has been a point of interest at the latest round of Senate estimates hearings in Canberra.
Agriculture department officials were quizzed about the international incident during a tense exchange on Tuesday morning.
Tim Simpson, the department’s first assistant secretary for people, property and security, confirmed details from an internal investigation, saying the papers were left on a plane in the early hours of July 7.
The senator and staffers had flown from Mumbai to Doha on an Indian airline on their way back to Australia from the United Nations conference in Rome.
The staffer left the secure bag containing the cabinet documents on the aircraft, Simpson told the hearing.
“What I can confirm is the documents were carried in an appropriate container … and secured correctly for the classification,” he said.
Australian embassy staff in India were contacted about 10 or 15 minutes after the travelling party got off the plane and staffers tried and failed to get the documents back.
“At the time the documents weren’t there when they were able to get back on and look for them,” Simpson said.
The estimates hearing was stalled for several minutes while department staff texted colleagues to confirm exact details of the trip, in a moment Labor Senator Glenn Sterle described as a “Mexican standoff”.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said she was concerned senior public servants could not answer “basic” questions about the incident.
But Simpson said the department’s investigation report itself was classified and only related to what went wrong.
It would be up to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to comment on their actions to retrieve the documents, he said.
Agriculture secretary Adam Fennessy said security was taken very seriously and staff were retrained after the incident.
“What I’m advised is, as a result of the investigation, relevant staff are reminded of their obligations in respect of government information security responsibilities,” Fennessy said.
At the end of questioning, the hearing was told the staffer worked for ministerial and parliamentary services.
“I hope the poor devil got over it,” Sterle said.
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