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‘Ugly, shameful secret’: Rex Patrick commences action to reveal confidential documents in Bernard Collaery prosecution
Amid Bernard Collaery’s ongoing and highly secret prosecution, independent senator Rex Patrick has commenced action in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to overturn a decision by John Howard’s government to block the release of cabinet papers that detail the Timor Sea boundary negotiations.
Naomi Neilson
Rex Patrick, who has been very vocal on ending the prosecutions of Bernard Collaery and Witness K, said it is “embarrassing” that the federal government would continue to pursue criminal charges against Mr Collaery for allegedly revealing the “discreditable truth” of Australia’s espionage operations against Timor-Leste in 2004.
“Dirty secrets shouldn’t be left to moulder in the dark vaults of our National Archives,” Mr Patrick said. “After decades of controversy, revelations of spying and highly secret criminal trials, it’s high time that the whole story is revealed so that Australian-Timorese relations can move forward on the new basis of trust and transparency.”
Mr Patrick added that the cabinet submissions and content of the cabinet decision are being withheld because it could cause “damage to the security, defence or international relations of the Commonwealth”. Specifically, it asserted that the “public disclosure of this information and other relevant documents could be used by organisations or individuals… to take counter measures against security operations”.
It is already a matter of public record that the Howard government took a “very hard line” by asserting territorial claims and the interests of Australian energy companies at the expense of East Timor’s rights and economic needs. At the time, East Timor’s leaders and United Nations officials were concerned that Australia had been using its access to East Timor’s telecommunications network to spy on negotiators.
“It appears likely from the very beginning of negotiations that the Howard Government engaged in underhand tactics to steal energy resources from a new and impoverished nation. The redacted cabinet submissions may well include inside information about UNAET and Timorese negotiating positions,” Mr Patrick said.
He added that the bugging of the Timorese cabinet room, referred to by former intelligence officer Witness K in his affidavit, was “likely not the beginning”, but a continuation of espionage operations against East Timor’s leaders and the United Nations “from the moment that Timor-Leste was freed from Indonesian rule”.
“The redacted submissions and cabinet decision are a key part of the history of a shameful episode in Australia’s diplomacy, a story that continues to this day with the unjust prosecution of Bernard Collaery,” Mr Patrick said. “These cabinet papers should not be left in the government’s black hole of embarrassing secrets.”
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
