Rudd tries to defend record

Kevin Rudd. Photo / Getty Images

Kevin Rudd has tried to defend his record on national security following claims a staffer filled his seat at meetings of a top secret committee, saying he attended all "critical" meetings.

In its first major report, new digital TV channel ABC News 24 said the former prime minister showed a casual disregard for matters related to the National Security Committee of Cabinet.

Mr Rudd's chief of staff, 31-year-old Alister Jordan, often deputised when the prime minister was running late for the meetings, it said.

The secretive body includes spy agencies and defence groups and is the supreme decision-making council of government when it comes to matters of war, border security and terrorism.

Mr Rudd issued a carefully worded statement on Friday which did not rebut the reports that his chief of staff deputised for him at top-secret meetings on national security.

"Mr Rudd had attended all critical meetings of the National Security Committee," his spokesman Patrick Gorman said in a statement.

"Furthermore, in Mr Rudd's absence the meeting was chaired by another senior minister."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has used the report to attack Prime Minister Julia Gillard's promise to give Mr Rudd a senior cabinet posting in a re-elected Labour government.

"If (Julia Gillard) won't rule it out she has just demonstrated that, frankly, amateurs are in charge of the Australian government," he told reporters in Fremantle on Friday.

The opposition's deputy leader Julie Bishop said the reports of Mr Rudd's no-show at some meetings was a major problem for Ms Gillard, who was deputy prime minister at the time.

"Was she happy that a staffer was deputising for the prime minister?" Ms Bishop asked.

While Ms Gillard would not comment specifically on the report, she defended her predecessor's record on national security.

"I worked alongside Kevin Rudd as prime minister. As prime minister he was deeply concerned about the security of the Australian people and deeply concerned about our national security," she told reporters.

Mr Gillard suggested she wouldn't be absenting herself from such meetings.

"I will do what you would expect to see the prime minister do about those cabinet committees," she said.

"I as prime minister want to see a proper system of cabinet government."

- AAP