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Criminal charges brought against former ACT Attorney-General
Using parliamentary privilege, independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie has revealed that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has filed criminal charges against former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery, as well as his client, a former spy known as “Witness K”.
Jerome Doraisamy
Mr Wilkie — who himself came to prominence as a whistleblower on intelligence matters during the Iraq War — told parliament that Bernard Collaery, a barrister who served as the ACT Attorney-General and deputy chief minister from 1989 to 1991, and a former Australian Security Intelligence Service technical operations officer for whom he acts, were being charged with revealing details of a covert operation to the public.
“The Howard government had ASIS install listening devices in East Timor’s ministerial offices to eavesdrop on their deliberations and put Australia in a vastly superior negotiating position,” he told parliament.
“In effect, [former foreign minister Alexander] Downer and, by implication, Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, forced East Timor, the poorest country in Asia, to sign a treaty which stopped them from obtaining their fair share of oil and gas revenues, and that is simply unconscionable.”
Witness K spoke with the then ASIS-approved lawyer, the “distinguished” Bernard Collaery, Mr Wilkie said.
“Collaery determined, after two and a half years of research, that the East Timor operation had been ordered in violation of the Intelligence Services Act and took steps to have his client give confidential evidence at the Tribunal at the Hague.”
The former officer would have been “making a perfectly legal disclosure in confidential proceedings”, Mr Wilkie asserted, and “this is what the government feared”.
On 3 December 2013, he continued, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation “raided the former officer’s home and the office and home of Mr Collaery, seizing documents and data, and cancelling the former officer’s passport”.
Criminal charges have now been filed by the Commonwealth DPP, Mr Wilkie said.
“This is an insane development in its own right and is made all the more curious given our new treaty with East Timor,” he said. “It seems that with the diplomacy out of the way, it is time to bury the bodies.”
The bottom line is that spying on East Timor was “indeed illegal and unscrupulous”, Mr Wilkie concluded.
“This government wants to turn the former ASIS officer and his lawyer into political prisoners,” he argued.
“That’s what happens in a pre-police state, where instead of a royal commission, they lock people up who more likely deserve the Order of Australia.”
According to the ABC, a directions hearing will be held in the ACT Magistrates Court on 25 July.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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