Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull admits he uses a non-government private email account but definitely not to send classified government information.
"I protect classified information very carefully," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
Mr Turnbull said he reached many people via a non-government account which he's used for years.
He said he used a variety of messaging technologies.
"You shouldn't assume that government email services are more secure than private ones," he said.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus suggested he could be using this non-government account to evade obligations under freedom of information law.
He said he didn't think the prime minister had cleared this up.
"In fact, he's opened himself up to more questions. Does he really think that personal email servers are more secure than the prime minister's?" he said in a statement.
"Is it really up to him to decide what should be subject to FOI and what shouldn't be?"
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he should just explain what services he used and whether any had been used for transmission of any classified information.
"He can probably put an end to this matter pretty quickly," he told reporters in Hobart.
"This is certainly now ... a test for Malcolm Turnbull to demonstrate the rules apply to him as well as everyone else."
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