Senator Murray Watt confirms staffer lost cabinet documents at Doha Airport
The cabinet minister has confirmed his staffer lost a bag containing documents concerning an imminent cabinet decision, but stressed it was not related to national security.
Cabinet minister Murray Watt has revealed that a locked bag that was lost at Doha Airport last year contained documents related to a decision he was about to bring to cabinet.
In October, Capital Brief revealed that a former staffer of Watt’s left a bag containing cabinet documents at Doha Airport in 2023. The documents were nowhere to be found within minutes of being identified as lost.
Facing a grilling from opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson during Senate estimates on Monday, Watt confirmed the matter — which occurred while he was agriculture minister — was referred to “a number" of offices and agencies with the government.
“Without obviously going into matters that have been considered by cabinet, it was a matter that was to be discussed in cabinet that I was the lead minister on when I returned from overseas,” he said.
