{"id":20709,"date":"2026-05-29T07:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20709\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:02:15","slug":"krissy-barrett-refers-nine-airport-leak-to-nacc-over-roberts-smith-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20709\/","title":{"rendered":"Krissy Barrett refers Nine airport leak to NACC over Roberts-Smith arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett says she is \u201cdetermined to find out\u201d how media outlet Nine found out the agency was going to arrest alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith at Sydney Airport on April 7<\/a>, and\u00a0has referred the matter to the\u00a0National Anti-Corruption Commission.<\/p>\n

In a broad defence of the AFP operation,<\/a> Ms Barrett said the leaking of information regarding the arrest was disappointing and there would be consequences. \u201cThere were nine agencies or departments that knew of the date of the arrest,\u201d she told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne media outlet was at the airport at the time of the individual\u2019s arrest. I am not just disappointed the media outlet was there, but I am determined to find out how they knew of the arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no evidence to suggest the AFP provided information to the media about the date or details of the arrest, but out of an abundance of caution, the matter has been referred by the AFP and the (Office of the Special Investigator) to the NACC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrest of the Victoria Cross recipient sparked an uproar among those who believed Australia\u2019s most decorated living soldier is innocent, or has been unreasonably pursued over incidents that allegedly occurred in the heat of war.<\/p>\n

Questions over the dramatic arrest<\/a> of Mr Roberts-Smith were raised quickly by public figures after police descended on the former SAS soldier, who was travelling with his children from Brisbane to Sydney before being taken into custody.<\/p>\n

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was one of the most vocal critics of the arrest, which she said had been undertaken in a \u201cdisgusting\u201d and deliberately public way; billionaire Elon Musk also weighed into the incident, which he said \u201csounds insane\u201d.<\/p>\n

The referral to the NACC comes amid controversy over former commissioner Paul Brereton, who resigned after an \u201congoing focus on matters relating to me personally\u201d following reports of misconduct. <\/p>\n

Ms Barrett said the time and place of Mr Roberts-Smith\u2019s arrest was made considering the fact he \u201chad no known fixed abode, and OSI had received information that the individual was planning to relocate overseas\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason to arrest the individual in Sydney and not Brisbane was an operational decision determined after discussing with relevant partners,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Barrett said the AFP did not allow media \u201cride-alongs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not allow or want media at our search warrants, or when we are arresting individuals, particularly at dangerous locations, or for those being charged with serious offences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trade-off is that we will provide footage to the media with appropriate safeguards to protect members and crime scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is operationally sound and in the public interest, we will provide the footage to departments or agencies, which also use it as part of their crime deterrence messaging, and we use footage of arrests to educate about crime prevention and use it as a deterrence tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts whether the arrest of Mr Roberts-Smith was to \u201cjustify more funding\u201d, Labor frontbencher Murray Watt said he had \u201cfull confidence in our police forces to make good decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t interfere with decisions of the AFP as to who they charge and what for. That is an independent decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Barrett said an \u201coperational decision\u201d was made to arrest the individual at Sydney Domestic Airport because of requirements under ministerial guidelines.<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Sydney Airport<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett says she is \u201cdetermined to find out\u201d how media outlet Nine found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19801,594,19810,22,23,133,5402,1758,21,19807,7148,99,2184,19798,19813,19809,19808,19805,19804,19811,19803,19815,19812,19800,7429,19806,19814,19797,13156,355,120,19802,3217,18482,1926,19799,212,7296,247,5769],"class_list":["post-20709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-affairs-legislation-committee","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-alleged-war-criminal","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-capital-territory","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-austrlia","tag-ben-packham","tag-ben-roberts-smith","tag-brisbane","tag-canberra","tag-constitutional-affairs-legislation","tag-crime-deterrence-messaging","tag-crime-prevention","tag-crime-scenes","tag-crimes-shift","tag-day-dawn-service","tag-defence-correspondent","tag-deterrence-tool","tag-elon-musk","tag-federal-police-commissioner","tag-glenn-hunt","tag-krissy-barrett","tag-legislation-committee-budget","tag-malcolm-roberts","tag-media-outlet","tag-murray-watt","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-operational-decision","tag-parliament-house","tag-paul-brereton","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-police-outrage","tag-queensland","tag-search-warrants","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}