If Commonwealth lawyers decide to go ahead and prosecute an ABC journalist for publishing classified material, they'll have to get the tick of approval from the Attorney-General first.
In the months after the raids, the nation's chief law officer stepped into the fray.
Mr Porter's decision was welcomed by some, who viewed it as a roadblock to reporters being forced to sit in the dock. There's little appetite in government ranks for journalists being pursued in the criminal courts.But the Attorney-General's direction to Commonwealth lawyers was also seen as effective acknowledgment that the national security framework was too strict — or at the very least, journalists were not intended targets.
For example, Mr Porter would have signed the warrants ASIO needed to search the home of New South Wales state Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane.
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