Last week, Tasmanian Liberal senator Stephen Parry discovered that his intern, Aaron Santelises, ran for the ALP in the Queensland seat of Mudgeeraba in the March state election.

Mr Santelises, a fourth-year law and international relations student at Griffith University, began a semester-long Australian national internship placement last fortnight through the ANU.

While students are asked to state any political affiliations before being assigned an internship, Mr Santelises failed to disclose his Labor Party membership and preselection. However, a quick Google search would have unveiled much of his campaign publicity.

Mr Santelises spent a week-and-a-half in the office of Senator Parry - who is also Senate Deputy President and chairman of committees - before being discovered.

He had attended a briefing on early childhood development by an academic when another Coalition staffer recognised him from the Queensland election.

Senator Parry said he was extremely disappointed in Mr Santelises’ concealment and called the ANU immediately.

The director of the internship program, Andrew Banfield, came to Senator Parry’s office and Mr Santelises was removed from the program that same day.

Senator Parry categorically denied Mr Santelises had had access to any sensitive Liberal Party information and believed Mr Santelises had been naive, rather than a plant or a spy.

“He never attended any confidential Liberal Party briefings or any policy discussions, and he certainly never had access to sensitive information nor access to my private office,” Senator Parry said.

“We are used to having interns in the office and we don’t even allow our own Liberal Party volunteers to have access to special information.”

When confronted about his political past, Mr Santelises told Senator Parry and Dr Banfield that he thought his background would prevent him for being placed in the program.

Senator Parry said it would have been better had he disclosed his Labor affiliations, as he would have been placed with a Labor politician. He also questioned the extent of ANU's vetting of applicants for positions in Parliament House and other workplaces where secure background checks should be required.

“We assume that the ANU has done the appropriate background checks before they place the interns with us,” Senator Parry said.

“We use this program all the time and, as far as I am aware, they make accommodations if students have political preferences. So he should have just come clean.”

Mr Santelises could not be contacted for comment yesterday but Senator Parry said he had appeared genuinely contrite and embarrassed by the situation.

“He is a lovely bloke. I just hope he learnt a big lesson in life about how it is important to be honest and open.”

Mr Santelisis is Senator Parry’s ninth intern in six years and he described them as having been “high-calibre students who have produced some excellent reports that have been tabled in the Parliament and used by parliamentary committees in their research’’.

A spokesman for the ANU said: “The university was very disappointed to discover that a student placed in Senator Parry’s office had failed to disclose his political affiliation when enrolling in the internship program. We acted immediately, met with the senator, and the student was removed from the placement the same day.

“The student’s position in the Australian national internships program is now under review. We are also reviewing the process to ensure that this never happens again. ANU has run the program since 1993, and in that time placed 1200 students in political offices, NGOs and departments. We have never had this type of problem before.”

It is believed the overhaul of internship placements will include a requirement that students sign a statutory declaration about the personal information they provide in their application.