Former foreign minister Julie Bishop says all parliamentarians should heed the words of ASIO director-general Mike Burgess and avoid politicising national security and foreign policy.
Her comments come a week after Prime Minister Scott Morrison withdrew a reference to Labor frontbencher Richard Marles as a "Manchurian candidate" during Question Time.
Mr Burgess told 7.30 afterwards the politicisation of national security was "not helpful".
Ms Bishop said "all parliamentarians" should take note.
"My concern is that foreign policy and national security should always be, as far as possible, bipartisan," she said.
"We need long-term consistency, particularly national security, so that our security and defence and intelligence agencies can do their work."
Ms Bishop said there could "of course" be debates, and that the government's comments on Labor's track record of defence spending were "all legitimate questions".
"But I would be heeding the words of the ASIO director because if he says it's not helpful for the agencies for national security to be used as a partisan political football, then that's not in Australia's national interests either," she said.
"And that should be an approach taken by all parliamentarians."
Not much leverage with Russia
Asked whether Australia could take more action against Russia, other than the sanctions announced on Wednesday, Ms Bishop said Australia "does not have a great deal of trade with Russia and we don't really have much leverage over Russia".
"But what Australia can do is support those nations that do have leverage over Russia and particularly those in Europe who are literally on the front line," she said.
"I think that one of the challenges will be the European nations putting harsh sanctions on Russia, as we go into winter because Europe is very reliant on Russian energy, natural gas, for domestic heating. And [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin could withhold energy supplies by saying, 'Well, the United States has blocked them from the international payment system'.
"So it's going to be very challenging for there to be sanctions that are universal, therefore have impact."
