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NBN Co has vowed to continue targeting whistleblowers in the wake of a critical report from a powerful Senate committee.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the office of then-senator Stephen Conroy and the home of his staff member last year and seized thousands of documents.
The AFP was investigating a leak to Mr Conroy's office regarding NBN Co.
Mr Conroy claimed privilege over the documents, but an NBN Co staff member photographed them as they were seized.
He believes these photographs were used to identify who leaked the documents.
"The whole purpose was to send a chill through staff," he says.
The Senate Committee of Privileges has handed down its report into the incident and expressed concern the staff were targeted.
"Information discovered during the execution of the Brunswick warrant may have assisted in identifying persons of interest in the investigation," the report stated.
"The committee remains concerned at the potential that unauthorised use of this information may have adversely affected an NBN Co employee."
Two NBN Co employees were sacked in the wake of the raids.
NBN Co told the committee it used other information to identify the staff involved in the leak.
In a statement sent to the ABC, It has defended its conduct.
"We take seriously any potential crime or breach of employee code of conduct, such as the theft of company materials, and will continue to take a zero tolerance approach in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and the Australian taxpayers," it said.
"We acknowledge the Committee has conducted an investigation and arrived at a decision. Any ongoing investigation is a matter for the AFP."
The committee upheld Mr Conroy's claim of privilege over the documents.
It has ordered the AFP to return them and ruled they cannot be used in any police investigation.
"I feel vindicated on behalf of the Parliament, not particularly for myself, but for the Parliament," Mr Conroy said.
"The Parliament has drawn a line in the sand and said you can't use police to intimidate whistleblowers from giving information to politicians. I think that's an incredibly important principle."
The AFP said in a statement it was aware of the outcome of the Senate Privileges Committee decision.
"The AFP will now consider the report findings," the statement read.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong, is calling on the Prime Minister to explain the role his office played in the raids.
Malcolm Turnbull was communications minister at the time.
Senator Wong says Mr Turnbull needs to say when he knew about the raids and explain what his involvement with them was.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, police, telecommunications, parliament, australia, canberra-2600