The AFP’s three-year fight to keep a letter secret has opened itself up to accusations that it was serving the government of the day, rather than acting as the cops on the beat.
and the nation’s new top law enforcer was keen to project a transparency-trumps-all approach.
In the letter sent to the then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton on June 25, 2018, the AFP said a police probe into Christensen’s frequent travel to the region had found no evidence of criminal conduct but the politician had “engaged in activities” that put him at risk of being compromised by foreign interests.The stonewalling by the AFP has opened itself up to accusations that it was trying to serve the then-Coalition government, rather than acting as the cops on the beat.
Christensen has long denied any wrongdoing in relation to his activity in South East Asia, pointing to the fact that federal police never found any evidence of criminality. The Queenslander would holiday there over Christmas and New Year only to fly home and be seen in the electorate on Australia Day, or Anzac Day – post an image on Facebook before flying back.
At some point during this time, there was a growing concern by some people within the government and the AFP that Christensen had been tipped off about the police probe.“They engaged in briefings and it seemed to have been leaked to Christensen,” Watson says. “If you can’t trust senior politicians not to leak this information for political advantage then the country is in a woeful place.”
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