Australia's national security adviser has defended Prime Minister Julia Gillard over claims she did not read briefing papers marked 'urgent'.

 

Fairfax newspapers on Tuesday reported Ms Gillard sometimes read secret briefing papers on the WikiLeaks marked 'urgent' by her security advisers four to six days after receiving them.

 

The briefings were provided by a task force looking into the impact of WikiLeaks documents on Australia's national security.

 

Fairfax reported Ms Gillard took five days to read urgent advice from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had breached Australian law, after she had publicly said publication of US embassy cables on the WikiLeaks website was illegal.

 

The AFP later announced no offence against Australian law had occurred.

 

It has previously been reported that when she was deputy prime minister Ms Gillard often missed meetings of cabinet's national security committee and sometimes sent a junior staffer in her place.

 

Liberal senator Russell Trood asked national security adviser Duncan Lewis during a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday whether the allegations were true.

 

Mr Lewis said it was not possible to know when the prime minister actually read the documents, because the notation she made on them could have been added days after she read them.

 

'They were documents for information - there was no immediate action that we officials were waiting for,' he said.

 

'The urgency ... was certainly not apparent from our point of view.'

 

He said it was common for documents to 'remain on your desk while you are contemplating it'.

 

Labor frontbencher Senator Chris Evans said the description of urgent was 'a little overblown'.

 

'Four to six days for a sign-off, quite frankly, is not a long length of time for a prime minister who is travelling and has huge responsibilities,' he said.

 

'The prime minister is known for being quite assiduous about briefs.'

 

Senator Trood said it was an unusual definition of 'urgent'.

 

'Why are you sending documents to the prime minister, who is obviously a busy person, marked urgent if you anticipate it can take four to six days for her to read them?' he said.

'There were matters which were not only of intrinsic public importance but matters which went to the heart of national security.'

 

Mr Lewis said the speed at which the prime minister read the documents did not have 'any impact whatsoever on the pace at which we were working'.