Prime Minister briefed by ASIO with year-old newspaper map

Australian government receives not-so-top secret intelligence.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and ASIO's Duncan Lewis on Tuesday, studying what appears to be a map that the Washington Post first published more than a year ago. Source: AAP

Australia’s government appears to be receiving its intelligence from a US newspaper.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Australian Security Intelligence Office Director-General of Security Duncan Lewis were snapped at a meeting studying a map of Syria and Iraq.

Tony Abbott and ASIO director general of security Duncan Lewis, in front of what appears to be a Washington Post map of Iraq and Syria. Source: AAP

However the information in the map is not so secret, or current.

It resembles, very closely, a map the Washington Post has published on their website.

A screenshot of the map on the Washington Post website. Source: The Washington Post

The Washington Post map that looks so similar was first published more than a year ago, the Sydney Morning Herald originally pointed out.

SBS has sent questions to ASIO to inquire if it has the capacity to make its own maps and if those use up-to-date information.

Australia has a tax-payer funded geospatial intelligence organisation.

SBS has also sent questions to the Prime Minister’s office to ask whether the map did come from the Washington Post, and who organised for the map to be used in the photo shoot.