Attorney-General George Brandis has defended the ASIO raids on the homes of a former intelligence agent and a lawyer representing East Timor in its spying case against Australia.
Senator Brandis confirmed that Tuesday's raids targeted the Canberra homes of an unnamed former Australian Security and Intelligence Service (ASIS) officer, as well as lawyer Bernard Collaery.
The attorney-general made a statement on the raids to the Senate on Wednesday to clear up "misleading" information.
The warrants to conduct the raids were requested by ASIO director-general David Irvine.
"The attorney-general never initiates a search warrant," Senator Brandis said.
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"The request must come from ASIO itself."
On the basis of the intelligence put before him by ASIO, Senator Brandis said he was satisfied the documents and electronic media identified satisfied the statutory tests.
"Therefore I issued the warrants," he said.
