An army whistleblower today found some backing for his claims after a government review found Australian troops in East Timor had been cut off from top secret information.

Late today, Defence Minister Robert Hill released details of a review by Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Ian Carnell into claims by army officer Lance Collins.

Former Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Bill Blick conducted an initial assessment of Lt Col Collins' claims that the Defence Intelligence Organisation failed to predict Indonesia's response to East Timor's move to independence, and told the government what it wanted to hear.

Lt Col Collins also accused defence intelligence officials of intentionally damaging his career by spreading malicious rumours after he upset DIO director Frank Lewincamp with his criticisms of the organisation.

There were also suggestions Mr Lewincamp's dislike of Lt Col Collins had caused the flow of intelligence to East Timor to be suspended for 24 hours.

Mr Blick's May 2003 report found Lt Col Collins' concerns were sincere, but did not stand up to objective scrutiny.

Mr Carnell was asked to conduct another inquiry into the claims after he found that Mr Blick's investigation was comprehensive but not exhaustive. Senator Hill said Mr Carnell reported to him on the matter on November 30.

"[Mr Carnell] found that access to the intelligence database had been deliberately turned off and that it wasn't the result of an instruction from the director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) Frank Lewincamp," he said.

"He further found that there were at the time security concerns, including the need to protect certain categories of intelligence and establish reasonable limitation in the database on what particular groups of users could access, and that the short term loss of access does not seem to have been a critical deficiency in operational terms."

Senator Hill said Mr Carnell had suggested the minister seek advice from the secretary of Defence in relation to certain matters. "That advice was sought and has since been provided," he said.

Senator Hill said he could not release the November report from Mr Carnell because "for reasons of natural justice it is not appropriate to release [it] ... at this time. The secretary [of Defence] is pursuing legal and administrative issues arising from the report," he said.

A spokeswoman for Senator Hill said it was not possible to say anything further about what advice the minister had sought from the secretary of Defence or what issues had arisen from the report. She said the statement about natural justice referred to a number of persons.