Login
Changeover of A-G opportunity to stop Collaery and Witness K prosecutions
With Christian Porter out of the picture and Michaelia Cash promising a suite of reforms, the ACT Bar Association said there is a great opportunity now to withdraw the controversial and secretive prosecutions of Bernard Collaery, especially since 17 years and $3 billion have passed since the events of the allegations.
Naomi Neilson
For many years, ousted former attorney-general Christian Porter has been criticised for consenting to the prosecutions of Bernard Collaery and Witness K to go ahead and advocating for it to take place behind closed doors. Now that he has been replaced, legal bodies are calling for Michaelia Cash to step up and do what he could not.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
In a statement, ACT Bar Association president Andrew Muller said the prosecution has drawn criticisms from many quarters, including judicial officers and academics, and has been marked by more and more controversy as secretive provisions are added and evidence that may have shed light on Mr Collaery’s role suppressed.
“There is an available perception that Mr Collaery is being prosecuted by the government for his involvement in acting for a man who brought to light allegations of improper and illegal behaviour by the government,” Mr Muller said. “With the swearing in of our new A-G, an opportunity arises to review the prosecution.
“The Bar Association of the Australian Capital Territory earnestly calls on the incoming Attorney-General Michaelia Cash to undertake such a review.”
In December 2013, ASIO and the Australian Federal Police raided the homes of Mr Collaery and Witness K, but it was not until May 2018 that they learned they would be facing potential jail sentences for allegedly breaching the Intelligence Services Act and the Criminal Code for disclosing that Australia had bugged Timor-Leste.
Mr Muller included in his statement a look back at former attorney-general George Brandis’ stance on the prosecution, who took two years and three months of his term debating whether or not he would give his consent based on “misgivings” he had about the case. Mr Porter gave his consent just six months into his term.
In 2019, Mr Collaery’s counsel Bret Walker SC said that Mr Brandis did not find the case “straightforward” enough to say yes to and that allowing this to be passed onto Mr Porter came from elapsed time to make a decision rather than forgetting about it.
In a recent event hosted by the Australian National University (ANU)’s law school, former Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright said that his consent came because he wished to “avoid public embarrassment” to his party, who was in charge when the decision was made to bug a friendly government for commercial gain.
“[Mr Collaery] has spent his entire adult life serving the people of Australia… and has a long and honourable career both in politics and in private practice as a lawyer,” Mr Muller said of his character. “Bernard Collaery has over decades helped, either for free or at greatly reduced charges, many clients.”
