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The Department of Immigration sought an investigation by the Australian Federal Police which resulted in a whistle-blowing psychiatrist having his phone records accessed, it has emerged.
Guardian Australia reported on Tuesday that the AFP had compiled hundreds of pages of file notes and reports involving Sydney-based psychiatrist and detention centre critic, Peter Young, including documents that show his phone records had been investigated.
The probe followed media reports that contained details of the medical records of Hamid Khazaei, a Manus Island asylum seeker who died in September 2014 after a cut on his leg progressed to septicaemia.
Dr Young oversaw the mental health of asylum seekers in all Australian-run detention centres from 2011 to mid-2014. He told Fairfax Media he was no longer in the position at the time of Mr Khazaei's death and did not have access to his medical records, and suggestions he was responsible for the leak were "absolutely ridiculous".
But he indicated the leak was nonetheless justified because it demonstrated the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's "utter negligence" in the case.
ABC's Four Corners program last month reported a number of senior medical professionals who claimed authorities failed to act on urgent requests to evacuate Mr Khazaei, which contributed to his death.
The AFP confirmed the Department of Immigration made a referral over the leak of Commonwealth information. A spokesman said "no persons of interest were predetermined" and there was insufficient evidence to support a prosecution.
Dr Young has been a vocal critic of offshore detention since he left the system, and has previously spoken out over Mr Khazaei's case. He believed the department made the police referral because it was "embarrassed" by the leak.
Dr Young requested access to files the AFP had compiled on him. Guardian Australia said the files stated he was a suspect in the investigation because of "comments attributed to him being highly critical of [the Immigration Department] and IHMS in their handling of asylum seeker medical care" in two news reports.
The news outlet quoted a file note saying Dr Young's phone "did not identify contact with any media outlets or journalists during the period surrounding the publication of the media articles".
Dr Young said the AFP "accessed my metadata, they've called up my colleagues and questioned them about why they are speaking to me".
He said this disproved government claims that secrecy provisions in Australian Border Force laws, introduced in July last year, are not aimed at doctors.
However, the department said the laws did not apply retrospectively to unauthorised disclosures, suggesting they would not have covered the leak involving Mr Khazaei's death.
"It is the AFP's decision whether to commence an investigation," a department spokesman said in a statement.
"As stated on multiple occasions, the ABF Act does not prevent general statements being made about conditions in detention centres."
Dr Young said doctors working in the detention centre system who do not publicly reveal its problems "are enabling what is occurring … they are actually negligent in their ethical duties if they don't speak up".
So long as detention centre health services remained under the control of the Immigration Department, rather than health authorities, doctors working in the system could not deliver safe or ethical care, he said.
