The delay, detailed by Attorney- General's Department secretary Roger Wilkins to an Estimates Committee inquiry, follows the paper being rewritten in August last year after an earlier draft was considered to downplay the seriousness of the threat posed by terrorism in Indonesia.

 

The paper was also believed to be sent back for another rewrite in December after the Prime Minister's office became concerned it contained insufficient initiatives to announce.

 

Admitting that another draft was in circulation, Mr Wilkins said there "were significant issues that require reconsideration" in light of events of December 25 in the US.

 

"I'm talking about the bombing attempt on the plane on the 25th - it had an impact on the consideration of some important issues around intelligence, for our allies as well, which requires us to think about these matters," Mr Wilkins said. He was was responding to the incident in which Nigerian al-Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to set off plastic explosives stashed in his underpants on a Northwest Airlines flight en-route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. The bomb failed to detonate.

 

"As you might have noticed, there was a very strong and deliberate policy response from the United States ... to that event which raised questions about reciprocal and complementary measures, and we need to take those into account," Mr Wilkins added.

 

Opposition senator and deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, Russell Trood, said yesterday the delay of 14 months and counting was an "ongoing disgrace".

 

"There are always going to be terrorism events so this is just the latest excuse, he said.

 

Mr Wilkins hinted the rewrite could be being undertaken at cabinet level and the draft had not necessarily come back to senior officials this time.

 

A spokesman for the Attorney- General was unavailable for comment.