And it is refusing to say what, if anything, its initial investigation found.

An investigation was ordered after Fairfax Media revealed thousands of anonymous edits of the free online encyclopaedia - which included insults to world leaders and a former prime minister, and even a claim that the Holocaust was "justified" - had potentially been made by public servants.

The chief of Mr Turnbull's Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, personally ordered the heads of the Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Health, Agriculture and Parliamentary Services departments to "investigate as a matter of urgency" and report back within a week.

Prime Minister and Cabinet Department spokeswoman Emma Rees said in a statement on October 26 that "if there has been a breach of IT policy it will be treated very seriously".

But nearly a month later the department has refused to answer a series of detailed questions about the matter.

Those questions included what the investigation had found, whether there had been a breach of IT policy by public servants, whether any disciplinary action had been taken, whether any changes to departmental IT rules would be made, and whether a copy of the report into the matter would be released publicly.

Instead, the department issued a one line statement: "In accordance with the secretary's request, reviews have been undertaken. Investigations, if required, will be undertaken by the relevant agency."

An analysis by Fairfax Media using the WikiWatchdog website – which tracks anonymous edits made to the online encyclopaedia and logs the internet protocol (IP) address the changes were made from – found back in October that 8790 pages had been anonymously altered by staff across major federal government departments over the past decade.

While the majority of the changes are innocuous, some have the potential to cause severe embarrassment to Canberra's mandarins and the Turnbull government.

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