Two diplomats knew that former Turnbull government assistant minister Wyatt Roy was planning on visiting a Kurdish-controlled area near Mosul in Iraq, but they failed to alert the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra.
"They're responsible for what happens in their patches and we leave it to them to decide when and whether and who should be informed," DFAT Secretary Frances Adamson told Senate estimates on Thursday.
Mr Roy is said to have alerted Australia's ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, that he was planning to further explore the Middle East at a dinner in Tel Aviv on September 14th.
The Kurdish-controlled area the former Turnbull MP visited is near Mosul, and it is within a declared conflict zone Australian citizens are banned from entering under Commonwealth law.
"Mr Roy intimated to Mr Sharma that he was hoping or thinking of travelling to Iraq," DFAT's Jon Philp said.
"Mr Sharma warned him of the dangers of going there and I don't believe they engaged in any further discussion about it."
It has been revealed that following the conversation with Mr Roy, ambassador Dave Sharma sent an email to Australia's ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Langman, alerting him to the discussion. Neither of the men informed Canberra of Mr Roy's plans.
"Do you not find that odd that that wasn't communicated?" Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong asked.
The department was asked when Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's office became aware of Mr Roy's trip.
"The Minister's office learned of this when it broke in the media on the 29th of September," DFAT's Marc Innes-brown said.
"Do you not find that odd that that wasn't communicated?"
It's been revealed an "associate" of Wyatt's Roy contacted DFAT on September 20 to inform them of the trip.
Mr Roy was condemned by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Biship after SBS revealed he was caught in a gun-fight between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and fighters from the so-called Islamic State near Sinjar, close to the Syrian border.
Earlier this week, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said that despite acting against DFAT advice, no investigation into Mr Roy's actions had been launched.
"We're very conscious that it was a high profile matter and we did our own due diligence to satisfy ourselves, but no we don't have a current open investigation in relation to that," Commissioner Colvin told the Senate estimates hearing.
"Based on the public reporting we did form a conclusion that we didn't believe any offences had been committed."
