Australian parliament security chair rebukes Peter Dutton and others for referencing classified material

Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison unleashed partisan attacks on Labor in parliament last week, declaring Anthony Albanese was weak on national security. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The chair of parliament’s joint committee on intelligence and security, the Liberal senator James Paterson, has rebuked the defence minister, Peter Dutton, and other parliamentarians for referencing classified information during last week’s hyper-partisan brawling over national security.

Paterson told the ABC on Sunday he was not “being critical” of either Dutton or the Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who both referred to classified intelligence during last week’s confrontations in the House of Representatives and Senate estimates.