Taylor Swift's father, Scott, has been accused of attacking a paparazzo in Australia -- and now cops are looking into it ... and some of this appears to have been caught on camera.

New South Wales Police Media Unit tells TMZ ... cops there are investigating an alleged assault that was reported to them on Sydney's North Shore very early Tuesday morning local time -- this after a photographer named Ben McDonald filed a complaint claiming just that.

We're told police there were informed that a 71-year-old man -- believed to Scott -- allegedly got into a physical confrontation with a 51-year-old ma (McDonald) at Neutral Bay Wharf at about 2 AM Tuesday as he was exiting the area.

NSWPMU tells us the alleged victim reported this, and now ... it's on the radar as they probe what exactly happened, and whether a crime was committed. The cops here note ... the alleged victim did not require medical treatment.

Now, in terms of the alleged evidence here ... McDonald actually seems to have captured at least a piece of this altercation -- although, it's a bit unclear what exactly you can see here.

You can see and hear Ben manning the camera as Scott and a bunch of security guards clear the path for him as he makes his way from the dock area, and as Scott gets closer, one of the guards with an umbrella -- who seems to be trying to obscure the view of McDonald -- gets awfully close ... and you can hear what sounds like a scuffle ensue.

From the looks of it, Scott doesn't appear to be directly involved -- but again, it's hard to tell for sure. In any case, McDonald has gone running to cops to accuse him of assault.

McDonald told the Daily Mail that Taylor was with Scott here -- and that they were arriving from Homebush on a yacht when all this went down. Photos of their arrival were captured by paps on the ground -- including McDonald -- and you can actually see Taylor walking through with an umbrella over her entire torso as Scott guides her through the pap crush.