Australia Starts "Whole of Government" Investigation Into Julian Assange

Doorstop on leaking of US classified documents by Wikileaks

Parliament House, Canberra
Monday, 29 November 2010
Subject: Wikileaks

ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Obviously the leaking of this substantial amount of information is a real concern to Australia. Every indication is that some of the documentation could relate to national security classified documentation; we are waiting to assess the full extent of that. We have had some discussions across ministers, of course, with various United States officials, including the United States Ambassador, who's been very helpful and cooperative.

It is a matter that is taken with the utmost seriousness by the government of the United States and certainly the government of Australia and obviously governments around the world.

The release of this information could prejudice the safety of people referred to in the documentation and indeed, could be damaging to the national security interests of the United States and its allies, including Australia. So obviously Australia will support any law enforcement action that may be taken. The United States will be the lead government in that respect, but certainly Australian agencies will assist and we will look at - of course, I'd ask the Australian Federal Police to look at the issue as to whether any Australian laws have been breached as a specific issue as well.

So, these are serious matters; and we have formed a whole-of-government taskforce to look at the issues. There had previously been a specific Defence taskforce looking at a Defence documentation, but obviously, the documentations in so far, it suggested, could relate to issues broader than simply Defence strategy.

There has been established a whole-of-government taskforce to look at those issues and to obviously go through each and every incident to see what impact it may have and what action should appropriately be taken to firstly reduce any impact - adverse impact, but certainly to see what can be done to rectify the situation.
I'm very happy to take some questions.

Q&A Session: http://is.gd/hWoPX


Title from Wikileaks' tweet: http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/9142343475134464

Related OP: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9647592">Cables Shared So Far Only 226 / 251,287 (1966 - 2010): "Released In Stages Over The Next Few Months"