Journo's data searched after warrant error
A West Australian journalist had their telecommunications data searched after police obtained an invalid warrant in an administrative bungle.
A Commonwealth Ombudsman report reveals the WA Police Force twice applied for a journalist information warrant to someone who was not an issuing authority in 2016/17.
"This occurred due to a lack of awareness by WA Police regarding to whom an application for a journalist information warrant could be made," the report read.
"In response to this issue, WA Police took steps to quarantine all information obtained under the invalid warrants."
But WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the applications were made to a correct issuing authority - a judge.
That judge, who was based in another jurisdiction, erroneously thought he had been appointed the Public Interest Advocate, which is required under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act.
"We thought he'd been appointed. The warrant was then validated by a WA judge," Mr Dawson told 6PR radio on Thursday.
"The PIA had not been appointed at that moment in time."
Evidence gathered from an invalid warrant may not be accepted in court as admissible.
As it turns out, the metadata, which shows who contacted who and when, didn't yield any evidential value and the matter was not taken further, Mr Dawson said.
Lawfully intercepted information culminated in arrest 576 times in WA in 2017/18, according to the latest Department of Home Affairs annual report.
The second highest was 100 by the Australian Federal Police.
