May 12, 2023 — 2.59am
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A rare stoush has erupted in parliament’s high-powered intelligence and security committee over a government push that could see whistleblower turned independent MP Andrew Wilkie return to the secretive body.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Security and Intelligence has only had Labor and Coalition members throughout its history, besides a brief stint when Wilkie served on the committee during the minority Gillard government.
Wilkie resigned from his position as an intelligence analyst on the Office of National Assessments in the lead-up to the Iraq War, going public with his concerns that the threat of Saddam Hussein using weapons of mass destruction had been overhyped by the United States and its allies.
The Labor majority on the committee, which receives classified intelligence briefings and oversees agencies such as ASIO and the Office of National Intelligence, is proposing to expand its membership from 11 to 13 MPs, extending membership to politicians outside the two major parties.
The Coalition members of the committee said they felt “considerable regret” at writing a dissenting report on the issue, noting it was the first time in 17 years the committee had not reached a bipartisan consensus.
They said extending committee membership would “increase the risk of...
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