Australia's top national security minister ignored Tony Abbott's appeal last year to be hyper-alert to terrorism threats, Labor says.
But Attorney-General George Brandis says the opposition is making a cheap point in seeking to politicise the Sydney Lindt cafe siege.
Labor has questioned the government on why security agencies did not act when gunman Man Haron Monis, who was on bail for serious offences, wrote letters to Senator Brandis nine weeks before he stormed the cafe last December.
In raising the terrorism alert level to high in September, Mr Abbott said it was "designed to increase vigilance and raise awareness in the community".
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said this raised the question why agencies were not alerted to a letter from a man not only on bail but who described the leader of Islamic State in glowing terms as a "caliph".
"I think it should have (been referred to the federal police and spy agency ASIO)," Mr Dreyfus told Sky News on Thursday.
"The prime minister had invited all Australians to report to the relevant authorities anything that was suspicious.
"It is an absolutely appropriate and serious question to ask - what changed in the attorney-general's office?"
Replying to Mr Dreyfus' questions in parliament, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Monis had also written to him when he was attorney-general and former prime minister Julia Gillard.
"He is seeking to make political capital out of a national tragedy," she said.
Senator Brandis said it was contemptible, especially given Mr Dreyfus in government had stripped national security agencies of resources and not added to anti-terrorism powers.
Mr Dreyfus said he would look into what letters were received by previous Labor governments.
Ms Bishop said the protocol for handling letters was the same as that which operated under Mr Dreyfus.
Senator Brandis said his departmental procedures did not identify anything in the letter as raising concerns.
Department aide Karen Horsfall, who responded to the letter, told Monis they did not provide legal advice to members of the public and could not address his specific question about the legality of corresponding with the Islamic State leader.
Senator Brandis said ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis had confirmed that because the letter was a request for legal advice, it seemed appropriate to have been referred to the department.
The Monis letter was referred to a brief inquiry into the Martin Place siege, but no criticism emerged of its handling.
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