Dear friends,
Please support the action below in support of Bernard Collaery and Witness K next Monday 9th November, 4.30 pm, Parliament House. (see details below)
Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc
AETFA-SA, PO BOX 240, GOODWOOD South Australia 5034 Australia
www.aetfa.org.au
Affiliate of the Timor Sea Justice Forum and the Coalition of Supporters of Bernard Collaery & Witness K
AETFA SA PROPOSED ACTION TO SUPPORT COLLAERY & WITNESS K
Dear Friends in solidarity with the people of Timor-Leste
The Australia East Timor Friendship Association invite you to join a protest which is opposing the actions of the Morrison Government to attempt to imprison Witness K and Bernard Collaery whose courageous actions helped stop them from defrauding the people of Timor-Leste from much of their resources in their half of the Timor Sea.
Australia’s Attorney General Christian Porter has claimed that these two men conspired to undermine Australia’s security knowing full well that the charge is totally unfounded. It is merely a vindictive act by an extreme right wing government to punish these men for helping our East Timorese neighbours to get a fair outcome from the distribution of resources in the Timor Sea.
See the information below for more background.
Details:
TIME: 4.30 PM
DAY: MONDAY
DATE: 9 NOVEMBER 2020
(the day that Witness K will appear in the ACT Magistrate’s Court)
VENUE: SA PARLIAMENT HOUSE STEPS
Corner of North Tce and King William St, Adelaide
DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST WITNESS K & BERNARD COLLAERY!
PLEASE JOIN US AND ASK OTHERS TO DO THE SAME
& PLEASE SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION BELOW:
https://www.change.org/p/christian-porter-drop-the-charges-against-bernard-collaery-witness-k
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Bernard Collaery & Witness K, Webinar with Jose Ramos Horta and BC, and more…
Dear Friends in solidarity with the East Timorese and all victims of the TNI
While we are living reasonably secluded lives because of the corona pandemic much is still happening that we need to be aware of.
This update includes further developments in the cases against Witness K and Bernard Collaery, and details about an Australia Institute webinar with Jose Ramos Horta & Bernard Collaery on 2 September, information about Gil Scrine’s film Reluctant Saviour and Indonesia’s Independence Day on 17 August
Stay healthy and safe In solidarity Andy Alcock
Information Officer
Australian East Timor Friendship Association SA Phone: 61 8 83710480; 0457 827 014 Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net
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JUSTICE FOR BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
Our Canberra friends inform us that the next action to support Witness K will be on Thursday 20 August outside the ACT Magistrates’ Court next week where Witness K faces another session.
They also report that Bernard Collaery’s appeal will be held in November and his trial will commence around March next year.
He is likely to face costs, above and beyond his legal costs, of more than $100,000 to obtain documents from Woodside as well as other costs.
A fund has been established to assist Bernard with these extra costs to which the AETFA SA Committee recently donated $500. More information about this fund and other ways to support him and Witness K can be found on the following websites:
https://au.gofundme.com/f/support-bernard-collaery
https://bernardcollaerysupporters.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Dropwhistleblowerprosecutions/?modal=admin_todo_tour
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AN IMPORTANT WEBINAR: EAST TIMOR, OIL & SECRET PROSECUTIONS – WEDNESAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 10.30 ACST
with Jose Ramos Horta & Bernard Collaery
The Australian Institute is organising this event with former President of Timor-Leste and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, José Ramos-Horta, and barrister and former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery for a discussion of Timor Sea oil scandals, alleged spying and the prosecution of Bernard and Witness K.
To register, go to the following website:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8115952967171/WN_g5buoLOiRLyf4n-et6oQ8A
SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE, BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
DROP THE SPURIOUS CHARGES AGAINST BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
As Kathryn Kelly has said we need a Royal Commission into the treatment of whistleblowers, the legislation meant to protect them, and protections for journalists reporting their stories.
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FILM: RELUCTANT SAVIOUR
Gil Scrine’s coming documentary Reluctant Saviour is based on the excellent book of the same name by Professor Clinton Fernandes, It is in the process of being finalised.
A 5 minute trailer: is available for viewing on the following website:
https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/reluctant-saviour-australias-secret-war-on-east-timor/
There is also a fund to finance this important film.
Please donate if you can
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17 AUGUST – INDONESIA’S INDEPENDENCE DAY – JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF THE TNI
It is understandable that Benny Wenda the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is calling on West Papuans not to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day on 17 August given the crimes committed against the people by the very brutal and corrupt Indonesian military (TNI).
His message can be found on the following website:
However, on 17 August, we should remind the Indonesian authorities that it was many courageous and progressive Indonesians who struggled to obtain their nation’s independence along with many other people world wide who worked in solidarity with them.
For many years, the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA (CIET SA) – the forerunner of AETFA SA – held pickets outside the Indonesian Consul’s office in Adelaide on this day to give this message to the Indonesian leaders.
During WW2, many Australian soldiers fought alongside Indonesian partisans against Japanese fascism. Many assisted members of the Indonesian independence movement who were preparing the people for independence after the war. Between 1945 – 1949, the Australian union movement put black bans on a Dutch fleet of about 170 vessels that had gathered in Australia to take on soldiers, armaments and provisions intended for Indonesia to smash the independence movement. This solidarity by Australian workers was crucial in Indonesia attaining its independence.
Many of the Indonesians involved in this struggle were butchered during the TNI/CIA coup of 1965, which led to the deaths of about 3 million mostly progressive Indonesians. and ushered in the 33 year-long fascist Suharto dictatorship.which led to greater suffering for the peoples of West Papua Indonesia, East Timor and Acheh. This sacrifice must never be forgotten.
The 17 August is a very appropriate day to remind Indonesian leaders of this history and to demand that they give the people of West Papua their freedom too.
17 AUGUST: INDONESIA’S INDEPENDENCE DAY
– WHAT ABOUT WEST PAPUA’S INDEPENDENCE DAY?
– UNTUK PAPUA BARAT – MERDEKA!
– SOLIDARITY WITH & JUSTICE FOR ALL THE VICTIMS OF THE TNI!
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THE TRIALS OF WITNESS K & BERNARD COLLAERY – AN UPDATE (article for the Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Newsletter)
The prosecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K – the two Australian men who assisted Timor- Leste to achieve a maritime border and greater access to its resources in the Timor Sea continues.
There was a hearing at the ACT Magistrates Court involving Witness K on Wednesday 22 July during which the case was adjourned until around 20th August. As with other court hearings, over 40 people gathered outside the court to protest the prosecutions, the secret way the trials are being conducted, the endless delays. Protesters also demand that the charges be dropped.
One of the worst aspects of this vindictive trial by Attorney-General Christian Porter is the federal Labor Party’s almost complete refusal to speak out. This is largely due to Senator penny Wong who is intent on echoing the LNP fiction that the trial is about national security
However, some ALP members have refused to be complicit. Queensland MP Graham Perrett has spoken out, while NSW state ALP MP Paul Lynch has led that branch’s condemnation of it.
In addition ALP Alicia Payne MHR for Canberra is questioning the need for a closed trial for Bernard Collaery, but is not demanding that the fallacious charges be dropped.
There are some positive developments however. Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick and Rebekha Sharkie MHR, the Greens and independent Tasmanian MHR Andrew Wilkie have been demanding that the charges be dropped from the outset of the trials.
The main stream media is now reporting the trial more thoroughly and hopefully this will cause more ALP politicians to break ranks. Hopefully this will lead to more ALP federal politicians taking a stand.
Recently, Bernard Collaery was presented with Liberty Victoria’s Empty Chair Award on 24 July and he is one of the 10 finalists of the LawyersWeekly Foremost Lawyer of the 21st Century Award. There are several other worthy lawyers who have been champions for human rights amongst the ten do we wish Bernard well
https://libertyvictoria.org.au/home
https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/28834-vote-now-for-the-foremost-lawyer-of-the-21st-century
SUPPORT FOR BERNARD COLLAERY
A new website www.bernardcollaerysupporters.org has been established that provides more information about the trial against the 2 men, which also has a link to a petition with over 51,000 signatures. There is also a fund to help defray the costs that bernard is supporting.
We request that people support this and encourage others to do so as well.
Finally, Ian Cunliffe – a former chief executive of the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Constitutional Commission and who as deputy to the secretary of Australia’s first royal commission into intelligence and security in the 1970s – has had an excellent article – Secret trials: our judges need to resist the government’s pressure – published in the Sydney Morning Herald. It can be found on the following website:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/secret-trials-our-judges-need-to-resist-the-government-s-pressure-20200717-p55d2p.html#comments
SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE, BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K!
Andy Alcock
Information Officer
Australian East Timor Friendship Association SA
Drop The Prosecutions
Affiliate of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign (TSJC)
URGENT ACTION FOR BERNARD COLLAERY:
Hearings on Monday 25 May 2020
TELL THE MORRISON GOVERNMENT TO DROP THE SPURIOUS CHARGES AGAINST BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
Dear Friends and supporters of AETFA SA and the people of Timor-Leste
Hoping all are well and avoiding the dreaded COVID-19 virus!
AETFA SA has received emails from Sister Susan Connelly of the Timor Sea Justice Forum (TSJF) to inform us that Bernard Collaery faces a further court hearing on Monday 25 May.
She has also sent a TSJF media release about the continuing cases against Bernard Collaery and Witness K which is being vindictively driven by the Australian Government in closed courts. As you would be aware, the actions of these two heroic Australians contributed greatly to Timor-Leste winning a case in the International Permanent Court of Arbitration (IPCA) to obtain a maritime border between Australia and Timor-Leste in the Timor Sea to allow a fairer distribution of its resources against Australia whose leaders had sought to cheat the East Timorese.
There is more background about the case in The Guardian 11.04.2020 article by Richard Ackland below which outlines the very deceitful behaviour Australia’s leaders towards our East Timorese friends and WW2 allies after they had suffered greatly because of the illegal and brutal occupation of their country by the Indonesian military for 24 years.
In the attachments to this notice are:
* a TSJF pamphlet
* a letter to federal MPs & senators
* a list of phone discussion points to raise with federal politicians
These documents are all related to the campaign to drop the charges against Witness K & Bernard Collaery.
The TSJF & the AETFA SA are urging friends and supporters to sign the letter and send it to your local federal MHR (Member of the House of Representatives) and your state’s senators.
[It can also go to ALP MHRs and senators because their position on this issue has been no better than that of the LNP Coalition Government]
We are also asking that people ring their federal politicians and use the phone discussion points when raising the issue with them.
Please give all the support to Bernard Gollaery & Witness K that you can. They do not deserve imprisonment for supporting fairness and justice in the Timor Sea.
At no time did they endanger Australia’s national security as Attorney General Christian Porter has charged.
Obrigado/Thanks
Stay healthy and safe
Warm wishes
SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE, BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
DROP THE SPURIOUS CHARGES AGAINST BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K!
Andy Alcock Ordem de Timor-Leste (Medalha) Information Officer, AETFA SA Inc Phone: 61 8 83710480; 0457 827 014 Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net
AETFA SA – 44 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE FOR INDEPENDENCE & JUSTICE
(AETFA SA was originally the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA until Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002)
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TIMOR SEA JUSTICE FORUM
IMMEDIATE
URGENT MEDIA RELEASE
ACT SUPREME COURT HEARINGS re BERNARD COLLAERY
– CLOSED, QUESTIONABLE and DANGEROUS –
The Commonwealth Attorney-General continues to pursue the prosecution of former ACT Attorney-General, Mr. Bernard Collaery, despite having the power to discontinue the case.
The latest in the interminable series of hearings is set down for Monday, 25th May 2020 through to 3rd June in the ACT Supreme Court.
This hearing will be closed to the public. A determination will be sought at the hearing for some evidence to be available only to the judge. If that ensues it would mean that the defendant would not have full access to the evidence which will be used against him. It could mean that when the trial occurs, the jury will not be allowed to hear all the evidence.
The lack of public and legal scrutiny in the proposed conduct of this trial subverts internationally accepted standards for a fair trial and the right to prepare a defence.
Australian governments have exposed their people to the international humiliation of performing an act of economic espionage against a small and impoverished neighbour––Timor-Leste. Prosecuting those who acted in good faith in bringing the truth to light is a clear indication to the rest of the world that Australia is content to both swindle the poor and persecute those who act according to their consciences.
Bernard Collaery, as lawyer for “Witness K”, has been charged with alleged breaches of the Criminal Code (Cth) and the Intelligence Services Act. The details of these offences remain cloaked behind assertions of “national security”. However, national security has not been proved to be at stake, it has only been claimed, and it has been claimed by the very body––the Australian Government–– whose deceitful fraud is the cause of the whole debacle.
The prosecution of Bernard Collaery represents the denial of just and accepted legal norms to serve political and commercial agendas. It is further evidence that secret trials are already a feature of the increasingly fragile Australian democracy.
Authorised by Sister Susan Connelly
Timor Sea Justice Forum
susan.connelly@sosj.org.au
0498 473 341
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AN IMPORTANT BACKGROUND ARTICLE TO THE COLLAERY CASE:
The court case Australians are not allowed to know about: how national security is being used to bully citizens
This article is more than 1 month old
Richard Ackland The Guardian, 11 April 2020
In the Witness K case, a closed court is also very useful in covering up the alleged wrongdoing of a previous Coalition government
· It must have been six years ago or so that an anxious barrister knocked on the door of my cave-like office in Sydney’s CBD with news about Asio’s raids on a former intelligence agent known as Witness K, and Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery.
No sooner had he started to pick through the entrails, involving confiscated computers, files, documents, a USB stick and a passport, than he stopped mid-sentence. “Bugger, I shouldn’t have brought my mobile phone with me.” He dashed outside and left his phone on a ledge in the corridor – convinced the spooks were monitoring his whereabouts and his conversations about Collaery and Witness K.
It was my first inkling of the furtiveness and paranoia surrounding Collaery, his work for Timor Leste and the bugging in 2004 of its ministerial offices by operatives of the Australian Security Intelligence Service. Witness K, acting on instructions from Asis head David Irvine, helped to plant remote-switch listening devices in the Timor Leste cabinet room.
Collaery had straddled positions both as a lawyer for Witness K in an employment dispute with Asis and for the Timor Leste government – working for the bugger and the buggee. The aim of the eavesdropping was to maximise Australia’s position at the negotiations over boundaries in the Timor Sea and who got the lion’s share of the loot from the oil and gas resources.
In June 2018, Collaery and Witness K were summonsed to appear on charges alleging breaches variously of the criminal code and the Intelligence Services Act – conspiracy to communicate Asis information – and, in Collaery’s case, also communicating Asis information to journalists at the ABC.
The brief of evidence from the Commonwealth DPP had been sitting on the desk of former attorney general George Brandis for over two years. The AG’s consent to the prosecution is required under the legislation. It was not until Christian Porter, red in tooth and claw, got his feet under the AG’s desk that, with an amount of dispatch, the consent was signed.
When he announced the prosecution on 28 June 2018, Porter said, hopefully: “I would also encourage any member with an interest in this case to be conscious of the fact that the priority must be to allow the judicial process to be conducted without commentary which would impact on the fairness and regularity of those proceedings.”
You might wonder what planet Porter was orbiting when he signed off on that. Ever since, there have been protests outside the court in Canberra while countless preliminary skirmishes took place. There has been mounting public condemnation of the Commonwealth’s insistence that these prosecutions are of such great importance to national security that the court should be closed and the hearing conducted in secret.
And here we were thinking that it is the Howard-era government that is the real wrongdoer, defying international law to spy on a friendly and impoverished neighbour for commercial advantage.
Deceitful doesn’t even come close.
Political teeth marks are all over these prosecutions
Witness K has already pleaded guilty to agreed facts relating to his preparation of an affidavit for an in-camera hearing at the Hague. He faces further hearings in the ACT magistrates’ court in April. Collaery has more hearing dates in April which are no longer listed on the ACT courts website. In all, there have been 30 or so scheduled hearings since the charges were laid, most of them conducted in secret.
Political teeth marks are all over these prosecutions, with Porter issuing a certificate that proceedings be held in closed court in the interests of national security. Yet the extent to which the court is closed is up to the presiding judge, David Mossop, of the ACT supreme court.
No doubt he will weigh the principle of open justice and the danger to the rule of law if justice is shrouded, where reasons for findings of guilt or otherwise cannot be published, and as we’ve seen in the case of Witness J, citizens can be secretly jailed, Stalin-style.
The case against closing Collaery’s court hearings was put in an amicus curiae submission to the judge by Ernst Willheim, a former senior officer of the Attorney General’s Department and now a visiting fellow in the college of law at the the Australian National University. He also prepared a similar submission for the Witness K case.
Willheim submitted that the parties to the proceedings were unlikely to press arguments about open justice. Indeed, in the Collaery case it’s understood there have been consent orders relating to secrecy, but not for the trial itself. He pressed the point that there needs to a non-party helping the court on the “fundamental importance of openness in judicial proceedings”.
Should Collaery be convicted in a closed court, where the defendant’s lawyers and the jury could not see all the evidence, then public confidence in the administration of justice would take a damaging turn for the worse.
As it is, confidence is already a delicate flower. Judges and courts only have authority and community acceptance if justice is seen to be done, if reasons are explained openly and if fairness is the guiding principle.
The Soviets were good at obtaining guilty verdicts in secret, which then were conveniently used for propaganda purposes because no one knew what really went on.
Needless to say, Willheim’s amicus submissions in both the Collaery and K cases were rejected by the courts – partly on the ground that the commonwealth is a “model litigant”. This is not a good omen, for if Covid-19 doesn’t derail the proceedings in the short to medium term, Porter’s submissions on the sanctity of national security could well hold sway with the same outcome in the long term.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b9a8306b86fdc610df1d18636d91976128631c0c/934_781_4634_2780/master/4634.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=bbb34c546584ce341f7420ec487d8c7a
Witness K and the ‘outrageous’ spy scandal that failed to shame Australia
There is another powerful reason for openness. Collaery could call former prime minister John Howard and former foreign minister Alexander Downer to give evidence and it would be a calamity if the public couldn’t hear their explanations for the bugging.
None of which is to say that the accused are entirely without protections. There’s section 80 of the Constitution, which requires trials for offences against any law of the Commonwealth to be tried by jury.
A jury trial could be a worthwhile safeguard – then we could know whether representatives of the community gauge these proceedings as an overreach of prosecutorial and executive power. The former NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery QC is of the view that in bugging the Timor Leste ministers, Asis was acting beyond its statutory power.
There is also the contention that a law that prohibits the disclosure of an illegal act by a public authority may infringe the freedom of political communication.
The defence had filed affidavits from former minister for foreign affairs and trade Gareth Evans, former chief of the defence force Admiral Chris Barrie and former senior diplomat John McCarthy.
Two other defence affidavits were from former presidents of Timor Leste, Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta. The affidavits themselves are not yet public but justice Mossop told the court those affidavits were intended to directly challenge assertions by the attorney general that there would be a risk of prejudice to Australia’s national security if certain information was disclosed publicly during the substantive criminal proceedings.
There are other concerns that surround the cases. Witness K was due to give confidential evidence in proceedings at the international court of justice in the Hague where Timor Leste was seeking to set aside the treaty arrangements which it now knew to be tainted by Australia’s bugging and eavesdropping.
Shortly before he was expected to travel overseas for this purpose, his home was raised by Asio and his passport confiscated, and it remains confiscated. In normal court proceedings, it would be a contempt of court or a prejudice to the administration of justice if a witness is prevented from giving evidence.
Here is a case where we find national security is being played as a card to bully citizens, cast them in the role of ‘terrorists’ and cover-up the wrongdoing of a previous Coalition government
Likewise, when Bernard Collaery’s office was raided in December 2013, the security services took his brief relating to Timor Leste’s arbitration proceedings.
Undertakings were made by Brandis that, of course, Australia wouldn’t stoop so low as to access the contents of this seized material – an undertaking that did not persuade the international court of justice.
The court, instead, preferred to make binding orders to ensure that Australia did not use the material to disadvantage Timor Leste. There were 16 judges on the ICJ panel and with the exception of one of them, they agreed with the findings and orders.
The dissenting voice was the former Australian jurist Ian Callinan, a Howard-era “Capital C” conservative appointed to the High Court in 1989.
In his amicus curiae submission, Ernst Willheim said those undertakings to the ICJ left open the prospect that the ACT supreme court also might not be satisfied by assurances made by the attorney general about national security.
Here is a case where we find national security is being played as a card to bully citizens, cast them in the role of “terrorists” and cover-up the wrongdoing of a previous Coalition government, of which the current attorney general is in a direct line of succession.
In June 2018, Porter was anxious to emphasise that what he called “the judicial process” should, in the interests of “fairness”, be conducted without commentary.
Can a secret trial, where evidence is suppressed, be a fair trial? It could be that the moment justice Mossop rules that slabs of the proceedings be closed, then the accused would be off to the High Court seeking a ruling that secrecy is an abnegation of fairness.
The attorney general wanted speed and silence; instead, he will get a case that has the potential to run on and on, accompanied by mounting public disgust.
· Richard Ackland publishes the law journals Justinian and Gazette of Law and Journalism. He is a Gold Walkley winner and a former host of Media Watch and Radio National’s Late Night Live
Deferral of Bernard Collaery meeting
>> DEFERRAL OF THE ADELAIDE LAUNCH OF BERNARD COLLAERY’S BOOK:
>>
>> Oil Under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue
>>
>>
>> Dear Friends & supporters of Timor-Leste
>>
>> It is with great sadness that the organisers of the launch of Bernard Collaery’s book Oil Under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue scheduled for 16 March 2020 have felt it necessary to defer the event to some time in the future because of the necessity to take preventive action due to concerns about the spread of the Corona (COVID-19) Virus in the Australian community.
>>
>> The Association expresses its apologies for having to take this step and is hopeful that we can hold the event in the near future when the risks to people from the Corona (COVID-19) Virus have been resolved.
We would like to give special thanks to Pollyanna Clayton-Stamm, Jason Lake and Imprints Booksellers, the Australian Institute of International Affairs SA,
the MUP and many others who worked to organise this event. We are looking forward to welcoming Bernard to Adelaide in the near future.
In the meantime please note that Bernard’s book is available for purchase at Imprints Booksellers,
107 Hindley Street, Adelaide SA 5000, Telephone: 08 8231 4454 – email books@imprints.com.au
>>
>> SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE, BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
>>
>> Regards,
> In solidarity
>> Rosemary McKay
>> Chairperson
>> AETFA SA Inc
>> Phone: 0433 101 568
>> Email: scotiaforever@hotmail.com
>>
>> Andy Alcock
>> Information Officer
>> AETFA SA Inc
>> Phone: 61 8 83710480
>> 0457 827 014
>> Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net
OIL UNDER TROUBLED WATERS
STOP PRESS!
You are invited to the launch of Bernard Collaery’s revealing book:
Oil Under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue
Day: Monday
Time: 6:00 PM
Date: 16 March 2020
Venue: Adelaide University Club
Level 4 Union House, Harry Medlin Room, Adelaide SA 5000
(See link at bottom of page for map of location)
A conversation with the author Bernard Collaery and SA Senator Rex Patrick.
Please book on https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=614718
Presented by Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc, MUP, and Imprints Booksellers
Australia East Timor Friendship Association South Australia Inc
AETFA-SA, PO BOX 240, GOODWOOD South Australia 5034 Australia
www.aetfa.org.au Secretary: bobhanney48@gmail.com
Dear Friends & supporters of Timor-Leste
The AETFA SA Inc Committee highly recommends this event to you.
Most of you would already be aware of Bernard Collaery’s role with that of Witness K in greatly assisting Timor-Leste in gaining an international maritime border in the Timor Sea, overturning the very unfair CMATS (Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea) arrangement forced on it by the Howard government and gaining greater access to its resources in the Timor Sea.
Included with this invitation is an article by Bernard Keane in Crikey which reveals more of the disgraceful role that the US and Australia played during the 24 years of Indonesian genocide and human rights abuses in East Timor starting with the murder of the Balibo 5. There is another one that AETFA SA was asked to write for the Search Foundation.
Bernard Collaery and Witness K are Australians that we can be truly proud of. They do not deserve the persecution that is being perpetrated by the Morrison Government as they helped win justice for our WW2 allies – they did not undermine Australia’s security.
Please contact your federal politicians and call on them to demand that the charges against these courageous men be dropped.
And – of course – please attend the book launch and ask friends and family to do the same.
SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE, BERNARD COLLAERY & WITNESS K
Andy Alcock Information Officer AETFA SA Inc Phone: 61 8 83710480 0457 827 014
AETFA SA – 44 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE FOR INDEPENDENCE & JUSTICE (AETFA SA was originally the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA until Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002
Were our spies compromised by Balibo? New book reveals more sordid history BERNARD KEANE
For decades, Australia’s intelligence services have denied having any foreknowledge that the Balibo Five were at risk from Indonesian forces.
Intelligence services ostensibly only learnt shortly afterwards that the five — journalists working in then-Portuguese Timor in October 1975, reporting on secret Indonesian military activity — had been murdered by Indonesian special forces.
But Oil Under Troubled Water, a new book by Bernard Collaery, presents a strong case that Australian spies knew that Indonesia regarded the journalists as a “hurdle to be got over” before Indonesian military preparations could ramp up ahead of its December 1975 invasion, beginning a quarter-century occupation of the province.
In Oil Under Troubled Water, Collaery — currently being prosecuted by the Morrison government along with a former ASIS officer Witness K for revealing ASIS’ illegal bugging operation against Timor-Leste — explores the history of Australia’s relationship with what is now Timor-Leste.
A key revelation of the books is that Timor-Leste has been deprived of billions of dollars in resource revenue as a result of the deliberate hiding of the discovery of significant helium deposits in petrochemical reserves beneath the Timor Sea from both Timor-Leste and the United Nations.
Remarkably, Australia itself has also lost access to this strategic asset by allowing American multinational ConocoPhillips to take control of the helium.
Collaery has also unearthed documents that contradict the longstanding official line on what the Australian government knew about the Balibo Five — Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie and Gary Cunningham — in the lead up to the Suharto regime’s invasion of Portugese Timor in December 1975.
A sixth journalist, Australian Roger East, was murdered by Indonesian forces while investigating the disappearance of the five.
Collaery shows British ambassador to Indonesia Sir John Ford reported to London in September 1975 about clandestine Indonesian military activity in Portugese Timor ahead of its planned invasion:
“ |
The only limitation on clandestine activity now appears to be its exposure. The Indonesians are clearly worried about this. According to the Australians, president Suharto told general Yoga, the head of Bakin [the then-named Indonesian intelligence agency] that he would not agree, for the present, to step up clandestine activities beyond their present level. A particular hurdle to be got over is a plane load of journalists and politicians who are due to visit Timor, apparently at Fretilin request, to investigate allegations of Indonesian intervention. |
The Suharto regime had a history of heavy suppression of journalists inside its own borders and in West Papua; “getting over the hurdle” could have had only one meaning.
But this “sensitive” information obtained by an Australian agency — Collaery believes it must be ASIS — via a “top level liaison” with Bakin apparently wasn’t sufficient for the agency to alert the then-Whitlam government or to raise concerns about the ramifications of Ford’s phrase “getting over the hurdle”.
The Whitlam government at that stage was about to become embroiled in a life-or-death constitutional struggle, and Gough Whitlam was about to dismiss ASIS head Bill Robertson.
The Ford letter also sits poorly with the finding of inspector-general of intelligence and security Bill Blick’s 2002 review of allegations.
Blick found that another agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, did not have “intelligence material that could have alerted the government to the possibility of harm to the newsmen” and that “intelligence material was passed rapidly to government and there was no holding back or suppression of data by the agencies tasked with providing such material”.
The deniability of any foreknowledge or role of either Australian intelligence agencies or the Whitlam government itself in Indonesia’s destabilisation and invasion of Portugese Timor has been a staple of the official narrative around the murders of the Balibo Five — one that has united intelligence establishment figures and Whitlam apologists alike.
The British government has also come under pressure from the families of the two British journalists of the Balibo Five to explain what it knew ahead of and after the killings.
Collaery raises a wider question if the John Ford letter is correct. We’ve known since 1999, when the intelligence archive of Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin became available, that Yuri Andropov’s KGB had succeeded in tapping the communications of Henry Kissinger, who in 1975 was president Gerald Ford’s secretary of state and who accompanied the US president to Jakarta to meet with Suharto on the eve of the invasion.
It was at that meeting that Ford effectively greenlighted the invasion by telling Suharto “we will understand and not press you on the issue”.
Kissinger’s only concerns were that the invasion not commence until Ford had left the country, and that US weapons not be linked to the invasion.
Given Australia-US intelligence sharing, Kissinger is also likely to have been aware of Indonesia’s clandestine military activities in the lead-up to the invasion and the “hurdle to be got over”, via Australian sources.
As a result, the KGB may also have been aware that, effectively, ASIS or another Australian intelligence agency had had the opportunity to intervene before the murders of the Balibo Five, but refrained from doing so.
Was such information — which would have proved deeply embarrassing both to agencies and to Indonesia — ever used by the Soviets as leverage against Australian intelligence agents?
It’s another sordid moment in the long history of Australia’s neo-colonialist treatment of the people of Timor, driven by an obsession with exploiting its petrochemical resources.
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WITNESS K & BERNARD COLLAERY -TWO HEROIC AUSTRALIANS BEING VICTIMISED BY THE MORRISON GOVERNMENT Andy Alcock Information Officer AEFTA SA Inc (Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA)
The Morrison Government is trying to imprison Witness K and Bernard Collaery – the two Australians who helped Timor-Leste to achieve justice in the Timor Sea.They are accused of breaching Australia’s Intelligence Services Act 2001.
The action smacks of being a vendetta and and payback against these two men whose actions contributed substantially to the important win for Timor-Leste which is the poorest nation in SE Asia and which suffered 24 years of fascist terror at the hands of the Indonesian military (TNI).
In 2004, after Timor-Leste had gained its independence, Australian leaders sat down with the Timorese leaders to negotiate over the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
Alexander Downer – the then Australian foreign minister – had already withdrawn Australia from the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in a clear move to stop the acceptance of the usual principle of there being a maritime border midway between the coasts of Australia and Timor-Leste and to prevent the new nation from having full access to its resources in the Timor Sea.
To further Australia’s intention to rip off the shattered nation, Downer issued orders for ASIS (Australian Security Intelligence Service) to bug Timor-Leste government meeting rooms to give Australian negotiators an advantage over the East Timorese during talks. Australian leaders then bullied the East Timorese leaders to accept an extremely unfair deal that denied them a maritime border and access to much of their resources – known as CMATS (Certain Maritime Agreements in the Timor Sea).
Witness K was part of the ASIS spy team that carried out this action and he later considered that what Australia had done was both illegal and immoral as the spying had nothing whatsoever to do with Australia’s security, but was about a commercial interest for Australia and the oil corporations. The action involved skullduggery against a nation that had been a loyal ally during WW2 and whom Australia had betrayed during the TNI occupation. Witness K reported his concerns to senior security officials in private.
Later, when the leaders of Timor-Leste became aware of Australia’s actions, they approached the International Permanent Court of Arbitration (IPCA) in The Hague to seek to have the CMATS deal overturned. Bernard Collaery was one of the key legal advisers to the Timorese government and he also agreed to represent Witness K
Despite attempts by former Australian attorney general – George Brandis – to pervert the course of justice in the IPCA by raiding Witness K’s home and Bernard Collaery’s office to seize pertinent documents, the East Timorese had an important win. In March 2018, the IPCA ruled that there should be a border equidistant between the two nations giving them much greater access to their oil and gas resources. Former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and the former president of the Timor-Leste council ministers Agio Pereira signed the final agreement
Despite this, Australia is holding a sum of about $8 billion raised from resources in Timor-Leste’s half of the Timor Sea. This money is urgently needed for development and humanitarian programs to assist the people who have suffered greatly because of the TNI occupation..
Ir should also be noted that the federal ALP leadership refused to take a stand on the issue of the international court case and did nothing when in office to reverse what the LNP had done. Further, it is currently mostly silent about the rights of Witness K and Bernard Collaery.
Meanwhile, the cases against the two men who courageously did the fair thing continues. They are being tried as separate cases as Collaery has pleaded not guilty and Witness K has pleaded guilty. They are occurring under a cloud of secrecy in order to maintain the fiction that the issue is all about security and to make it difficult for supporters to be at hearings. The two have even been denied full access to their lawyers!
Just recently, the Melbourne University Press published a book written by Bernard Collaery about this sordid history – OIL UNDER TROUBLED WATER Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue [MUP]. This will be an important expose of the dirty tactics employed by Australian leaders against the East Timorese. This will be an excellent read as Collaery is a world renowned lawyer and he has a great sense of humour.
Oil Under Troubled WaterBernard Collaery
file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/Location%20of%20Medlin%20Room-1.pdf
ACT OF NO CHOICE Film and Speakers
You are invited to see David Bradbury’s film……………….
THE ACT OF NO CHOICE
a film about the fraudulent and brutal Act of Free Choice conducted by the Indonesian military in West Papua in 1969
…..and be involved in a public discussion about the West Papuan genocide occurring on our doorstep
– led by
* David Bradbury – internationally acclaimed Australian film maker
* Veronica Koman – an Indonesian human rights lawyer
DATE: WEDNESDAY 29 APRIL 2020
Doors open 5.30pm. Time of film (watch this space)
VENUE: CAPRI THEATRE 141 Goodwood Rd, Goodwood SA
TICKETS: $20 full waged $15 (concession)
available from:
Dave Arkins
Phone: 08 83454480
0408345593
Email: info@awpaadelaide.com
Donald Barnes
Phone: 08 83593109
0429 997 169
Email: dbarnes@adam.com.au
Andy Alcock
Phone: 61 8 83710480
0457 827 014
Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net
* drinks and nibbles will be available at 5.30 pm
* proceeds will go to the independence campaign for West Papua and funding for the film
Organised by the Australian West Papua Association & the Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA
Endorsed by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Romero Company, the SA May day Collective
BACKGROUND ON SPEAKERS:
DAVID BRADBURY:
David is an Australian film maker who began his career in 1972 as an ABC radio journalist and who has produced 21 documentary films including many that address difficult international political issues. and highlight the plight of those affected.He has won many international film festival prizes, received five Australian Film Industry awards and two Academy Award nominations.
David’s first film was Frontline – the story of Australian war film maker Neil Davis. Some of his other well known films include Public Enemy Number One (about Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett), A Hard Rain (about Australia’s anti nuclear movement), Nicaragua – No Pasaran (about the US undermining of the Nicaraguan government) Jabiluka (about the Mirrar people’s struggle against the Jabiluka uranium mine and Chile Hasta Cuando (about the fall of Allende’s government in Chile).
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The Act of No Choice tells the tragic story of West Papua and how Indonesia gained control of the country. It is based on present day interviews with Hugh Lunn who was Reuter’s Indonesian correspondent in 1969 and went to West Papua to cover the Act of Free Choice
Lunn reflects on the referendum and how Australia’s nearest neighbours were in effect sold into modern day slavery. The process was organised by the Indonesian military (TNI) and totally undemocratic.
Only 1025 Papuans participated in the ‘vote’ which involved the raising of hands indicating a preference for Indonesian rile over independence. This often occurred in the presence of TNI personnel. Dire consequences awaited those who refused or objected.
According to Lunn, UN observers turned a blind eye and the outcome was supported by the US, UK, France and Australia.
At the heart of this annexation was West Papua’s vast deposits of gold, copper and oil West Papua was effectively handed to Indonesia to be exploited by foreign multi national mining companies.
To this day West Papuans are treated as ‘primitives’ in their own country: raped, murdered, tortured and sentenced to 15 years for raising their independence flag, the Morning Star.
For a more detailed overview of David’s films, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZEmgq3tu0A
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VERONICA KOMAN
Veronica Koman is an Indonesian human rights lawyer who focuses on West Papua issues.
Her clients include West Papuans charged with treason for peacefully demanding their right to self-determination
Because of her courageous work,Veronika is now wanted by the Indonesian police on political charges which has forced her to live in exile.
Working for human rights in Indonesia where much of the political life is controlled by the country’s brutal military (TNI) is a very risky occupation.
She was awarded the 2019 Sir Ronald Wilson Human Rights Award.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-24/veronica-koman-west-papua-human-rights-lawyer-activist-awards/11633222
Book Review: SCORCHED EARTH
BOOK REVIEW by Andy Alcock:
SCORCHED EARTH – Peacekeeping in Timor during a campaign of death and destruction by Tammy Pemper
This book which tells the story of the great contribution of the UN police peacekeepers in the achievement of independence for East Timor is long overdue.
Peter Watt – a former SA police officer and the hero of the story – rang me in July 2019 to see if our East Timor solidarity group in SA (the Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA or AETFA SA) would be interested in promoting the book as we were having a celebration for the twentieth anniversary of the UN coordinated independence referendum in East Timor which occurred on the 30 August 1999.
Of course, we were very interested because we knew the problems that were faced by the UN CIVPOL (civil police) as they were expected to keep the peace for some time before, during and after the referendum while they were unarmed and the Indonesian military (TNI) and their Timorese militias were armed and running riot. Their targets were any East Timorese who were known to be working for the UN and supporters and promoters of East Timor’s independence from Indonesia
The book is written by Tammy Pemper, Peter’s wife and herself a former UN police peacekeeper in East Timor, so the book is also a romance. Having said that, the book shows clearly the incredibly difficult and the life threatening role that the peace-keepers played during the exercise.
Sixty Australian police officers working under the auspices of the AFP participated in the the UN CIVPOL police force for the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) for the referendum. They were part of an international force of 271 police personnel from 27 countries that were deployed to UNAMET.
Their role was to liaise between the Indonesian military (TNI) and the East Timorese resistance (FALINTIL) and provide advice to the Indonesian Police (POLRI).
Peter was sent to Gleno, a town established by the Indonesians during their 24 year illegal and very brutal occupation of the tiny nation. This is a town that means a lot to AETFA SA members because in 2002 just before the independence celebrations, seven members of the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA (CIET SA) – the forerunner of AETFA SA, visited the town on a day that Xanana Gusmao – the former resistance (FALINTIL) supreme commander and later the president, PM and a minister of the independent Timorese government visited the town in a UN helicopter.
This was a joyous occasion. People were in an exuberant mood and wanted to get a glimpse of their hero. However, everywhere we went, we could still see the damage that had been wreaked by the TNI and its militias.
We had a guitar that we donated to the principal and staff of the Konis Santana Memorial High School in Gleno which had also had some of its science block devastated by the TNI and the pro-integration militias. And the damage was still visible.
Scorched Earth gives great detail of what Peter and the other UN police peacekeepers had to face in Gleno and other places before, during and after the referendum.
The whole situation was very confronting as many of the militia members were supercharged on drugs and consequently had a great blood lust. And the TNI and POLRI, which were given the responsibility for the security of the UN administrative and police staff, were mostly unhelpful or urging on the militias.
At the AETFA SA’s celebration on 30 August 2019, one of the speakers was Gizela Moniz da Silva, a tertiary Timorese student who is currently studying in Adelaide. Gizela was a small girl 20 years ago following the referendum and she gave a harrowing description of what it was like dodging the bullets and the machetes of the TNI and its militias. She also added a tragic note of how one of the kids she was attempting to escape with was wounded and tragically died because he could not get to a hospital in time because of militias blocking the road. Her account was very moving and there were a few tears – hers and others. This was the most poignant part of the evening and gave those listening some idea of what the East Timorese and the UN staff and police had to endure.
According to James Dunn, the former Australian consul to East Timor and the author of two books on Timor, who worked with the UN, told me that the militias and the TNI were responsible for approximately another 2000 deaths during the lead up to and after the Referendum. The TNI had already wiped out about a third of the East Timorese population – over 200,000 according to Amnesty International and the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR).
In one very confronting situation, Peter even had a loaded firearm pointed at his head. One US police officer was shot and wounded.
As Gil Scrine, the Australian documentary film maker – currently making the film Reluctant Saviour about Australia’s involvement in the situation in East Timor at the time – has said: “Anyone familiar with the previous 24 years of Indonesian occupation knew this was an act of faith beyond all reason. The very people assigned this protective role had perpetrated a genocide in East Timor second only to the Holocaust in the blood-soaked twentieth Century.”
The Australia PM and Foreign Minister of the time would have been well aware of the situation as Australian security agencies had been monitoring the brutal actions of the TNI for the entire time they occupied East Timor. Yet knowing about the atrocities committed, they still sent the UN police peacekeepers in to do an almost an impossible task.
We should also remember that when the post referendum violence took off, most foreigners left. However, a group of about 80 UN personnel remained. These people showed such incredible courage to assist the positive outcome for the East Timorese and their courage should never be forgotten. Sadly, a recent ABC documentary on the UN peacekeeping in East Timor after the referendum does not give adequate tribute to the very valuable role the UN police played.
This book provides this missing piece of the history of that struggle and is a tribute to the courage and endurance of all those who assisted the East Timorese gain their independence under great adversity.
Andy Alcock, Information Officer, Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA is a founding member of CIET SA (Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA) in 1975 which became AETFA SA after formal Independence in 2002.
If you are interested in purchasing Scorched Earth please contact AETFA SA: E: bobhanney48@gmail.com (Secretary) Ph: 08 83710480 (Andy Alcock)
COMMEMORATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM IN TIMOR-LESTE [30 AUGUST 1999]
Australia East Timor Friendship Association South Australia Inc
AETFA-SA, PO BOX 240, GOODWOOD SA 5034
www.aetfa.org.au Secretary: bobhanney48@gmail.com PHONE: 08 8344 3511
AETFA SA Inc invites you to an event to celebrate
THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM IN TIMOR-LESTE [30 AUGUST 1999]
– a crucial event in the liberation of Timor-Leste
TIME: 6 PM for 6.30 PM
DAY: FRIDAY
DATE: 30 AUGUST 2019
BALLROOM, KINGS HEAD HOTEL,
357 KING WILLIAM STREET, ADELAIDE
COST: $20
Snack foods will be served and drinks will be available at the bar
There will also be an option to stay for dinner afterwards (at your own cost)
NOTE: BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL FOR CATERING PURPOSES
– RSVP by 26 August please!
Please contact:
Andy Alcock
Information Officer
Email: andyalcock@internode.on.net
Phone: +61 8 83710480
0457 827 014
Donald barnes
Treasurer
Email: barnes@adam.com.au
Phone: +61 8 83593109
0429 997 169
AETFA SA – 44 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE FOR INDEPENDENCE & JUSTICE
(AETFA SA was originally the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA until Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002)
CAR PARKS & PUBLIC TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS NEAR THE KING’S HEAD HOTEL
Car parks
Wilsons
15,Halifax St.
3 min walking to pub
$4 for 3 hours
Covered. 2m height limit
On south side close to corner. Across from the King’s Head pub.
11 Wright St
3 min walking to pub
$15 for 2 1/2hours
Uncovered. 18 spaces.
On the corner of John and Wright Streets
John Street is behind the King’s Head
On-street parks available but probably hard to get.
Tram
City South stop Opposite the pub
Buses
98 and 99 circle line buses stop across the road on Halifax St
Other buses may also run down here.
Latest news on Witness K and B Collaery
The issue of Australia’s relationship with Timor Leste continues, however there is some positive news. Ex-President and Resistance hero, Xanana Gusmao, has recently asserted that the prosecution of whistle-blowers Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery by the Australian Govt is unjust. Their court case, after much secrecy, has now been announced will be held on August 6. However we ask supporters to Call for the Immediate Discontinuance of the Case (see below). Also below is a speech given by Senator Rex Patrick last September on the ethics and legality of pressing these charges.
And we shouldn’t forget that Oz owes Timor more than $5b in stolen revenue from the oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.
Another Australian, in more serious trouble, is Julian Assange. Action needs to be taken to prevent him being extradited to the U.S. from where he will never return if the extradition takes place. Like Witness K and Bernard Collaery he is a whistle blower for truth and justice.
Postcards are available for anyone who is interested in letting the Attorney-General know that we want the charges against K & BC dropped. Give me a call on 0469 359199 if you would like a postcard or two.
In truth and justice
Bob Hanney Secretary AETFA SA
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URGE THE PM and A-G TO DROP THE CASE AGAINST “WITNESS K” AND BERNARD COLLAERY
Background The Australian government spied on its regional neighbour Timor-Leste in 2004 during Treaty negotiations about the sharing of the resources of the Timor Sea. The Foreign Minister at the time was Alexander Downer, and the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was Ashton Calvert. The spy now known as “Witness K” found out that those who ordered the spying were lobbying for Woodside, the oil company involved. He complained to the spy agency and was advised to get a lawyer. He chose Bernard Collaery. When the Timorese government was advised of the spying, they withdrew from the Treaty and began negotiations for an internationally recognised border. The consequent Timor Sea Treaty was signed at the UN in March 2018. Two months later, Witness K and Collaery were charged with making known state secrets. They face two years’ jail.
Call for: An inquiry into the illegal espionage against Timor-Leste in 2004. An inquiry into the relationship between ASIS activities in 2004 in Timor-Leste and the ongoing investigation into the Bali bombings at the same time.
Conduct of the Case The prosecution is using national security legislation in the case without demonstrating how revealing Australian spying on a poor neighbour threatens national security. The prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery has not the met the minimum standards required for a fair trial: • They have not been informed completely or promptly of the charges and evidence being used against them. • Undue secrecy and delay has surrounded the case and the hearings. • The A-G requires that all proceedings be closed and that no media covers the trial.
Other serious matters: • Those who ordered the illegal spying have not faced charges, yet those who told the truth are being treated as criminals. • This prosecution is a warning to intelligence personnel that reporting the abuse of law by government will threaten their reputation and livelihood. • The prosecution exposes Australia to international condemnation. • It erodes the Australian image as a fair, law-abiding and honest regional power.
Recent Developments After comments on 5 July 2019 by the former President of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmão that the prosecution was unjust, the Australian Prime Minister indicated that he was not ruling out dropping the charges. Now is the time for all Australians to CALL FOR THE IMMEDIATE DISCONTINUANCE OF THE CASE
*Contact the Prime Minister Phone: 6277 7700 Email: click here for Contact Form Post: The Hon Scott Morrison MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
*Contact the Attorney-General Phone: 6277 7300 Email: Click here for Contact Form Post: The Hon Christian Porter MP PO Box 6022 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600
Call for: The immediate discontinuance of the prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery.
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Senator Rex Patrick’s Speech to Parliament 19 September 2018 Senate Hansard pp 98-101. Senator PATRICK (South Australia) (18:43): I rise to respond to the Governor-General’s opening speech during this address-in-reply, and I do so with a view to discussing a situation that we have before us that should be of great concern. As we all know, Australia’s national interests are best served by a rules based international order. The 2016 Defence white paper mentioned a rules based order 53 times. The Foreign policy white paper put out by DFAT in 2017 mentioned a rules based order 15 times.
We need to practise what we preach, otherwise DFAT will become a rather expensive department that has no credibility, and that’s not in the national interests.
This overriding national interest is the context of my following remarks. In March 2002, three months before East Timor became an independent state, Australia’s then foreign minister, Mr Alexander Downer, withdrew Australia from the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. That meant East Timor couldn’t claim its right under international law to a maritime boundary halfway between the two countries’ coastlines. How’s that for a rules based international order? Meanwhile, on 20 September 2002, the Howard government awarded an exploration contract for an area partly on East Timor’s side of the median line. East Timor protested but couldn’t go to the independent umpire.
The government awarded similar contracts in April 2003 and February 2004, also protested by East Timor. Then, in November 2002, Mr Downer warned East Timor’s Prime Minister that Australia could hold up the flow of gas from the Timor Sea for decades. He said, according to a transcript of the negotiating records, ‘We don’t have to exploit the resources. We can stay for here 20, 40, 50 years. We are very tough. We will not care if you give information to the media. Let me give you a tutorial in politics—not a chance.’
In December 2002, the Sunrise project partners, Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas, announced the indefinite delay of the project, an obvious tactic to pressure East Timor to accept Mr Downer’s demands. The bottom line here is that Mr Downer and Woodside wanted to force East Timor, one of the poorest countries in
the world, to surrender most of the revenue from the Greater Sunrise project—revenue that it could have used to do much with, including dealing with its infant mortality rate.
Currently, 45 out of 1,000 children in East Timor don’t live past the age of one. Yet our plan was to deprive them of oil revenue. It’s prudent at this time to mention that one of Mr Downer’s senior advisers at the time was a man named Mr Josh Frydenberg. It’s relevant to something I will talk about later. Mr Downer then ordered the Australian Secret Intelligence Service to bug East Timor’s negotiations. ASIS installed listening devices inside East Timor’s ministerial rooms and cabinet offices under the cover of a foreign aid program, piling cynicism onto callousness. The espionage operation occurred at the same time the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group bombed the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on 9 September 2004, when Mr Downer and Prime Minister John Howard were assuring the public that they were taking every measure against extreme Muslim terrorism in Indonesia.
Introducing another character into the story, Mr Nick Warner was involved in the spying operation. Mr Warner went on to become the head of ASIS and has since been appointed as the Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence. I also note that Mr Frydenberg was an adviser in the Prime Minister’s office at the time of the spying. I will have more to say on that on another day. Spied on, threatened and unable to seek redress at the International Court of Justice, East Timor signed a treaty in January 2006. This blatantly unfair treaty denied them their right to a maritime border on the median line. It also, in effect, created a permanent regime over the length of the Greater Sunrise project’s commercial life. The major beneficiary of this negotiation was Woodside Petroleum.
The then Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Dr Ashton Calvert, had already resigned and joined the board of directors of Woodside Petroleum. Mr Downer took a lucrative consultancy with Woodside after leaving parliament in 2008. There are also credible rumours of disquiet within ASIS over the diversion of scarce intelligence assets away from the war on terror and towards East Timor. Aware of Mr Downer’s consultancy work for Woodside, Witness K complained to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security about the East Timor operation. ASIS took steps to effectively terminate his employment—an outcome that is not unusual for whistleblowers in this country. In response, Witness K obtained permission from the IGIS to speak to an ASIS-approved lawyer, Bernard Collaery, a former ACT AttorneyGeneral. After 2½ years of research, Mr Collaery determined that the espionage operation in East Timor was unlawful and may also have been an offence under section 334 of the Criminal Code of the ACT.
Going to the specifics, the case rested on the fact that the then director of ASIS, David Irvine, ordered Witness K, the head of all technical operations for ASIS, to place covert listening devices in the East Timorese government buildings. Those instructions enlivened the section 334 offence in that it constituted a conspiracy to defraud Australia’s joint venture partner, East Timor, by gaining advantage through improper methods when the Commonwealth was under a legal obligation to conduct good-faith negotiations.
The events that followed are well known. The East Timorese took Australia to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which saw Australia eventually agree to renegotiate the treaty. That was an acknowledgement that the operation had occurred. As part of those proceedings, Witness K was to give evidence in a confidential hearing. David Irvine—that’s the name I introduced a moment ago—in his subsequent role as DirectorGeneral of ASIO, organised raids on the homes and offices of Bernard Collaery and Witness K on 3 December 2013. At the same time the raids occurred, the Australian government revoked Witness K’s passport.
We know from inquiries made at estimates last year by then Senator Xenophon that the competent authority in law advising the foreign minister on Witness K was not the AFP or ASIO, as you would normally expect. Rather, it was ASIS, headed by a somewhat conflicted Nicholas Warner, noting his involvement in the original illegal bugging operation. The day after the raids, former Attorney-General George Brandis came into this Senate chamber and threatened criminal prosecutions for ‘participation, whether as principal or accessory, in offences against the Commonwealth’. I’ve recently found out through Senate estimates that the AFP received a referral from ASIO about this matter on 13 December 2013. The AFP began its investigation on 10 February 2014, a few months later. One year later, on 18 February 2015, the AFP gave a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. The result? Nothing. Zip. Nada—until now. In May 2018, three years later, and just after the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties finally held public hearings on the Timor Sea Treaty, the CDPP filed charges. Sarah Naughton SC from the CDPP really has to explain this interesting timing. Did she and her predecessor hold off until diplomacy was out of the way? And that’s not all she has to explain.
Amongst the charges before the ACT court—this is public domain information— are conversations Collaery is alleged to have had with a number of ABC journalists and producers: Emma Alberici, Peter Lloyd, Connor Duffy, Marian Wilkinson and Peter Cronau. In fact, the first time this was reported in the press, the journalist responsible was Leo Shanahan on 29 May 2013 in The Australian. Shanahan quoted Collaery directly as saying: Australia clandestinely monitored the negotiation rooms
occupied by the other party … … … … They broke in and they bugged, in a total breach of sovereignty, the cabinet room, the ministerial offices of then prime minister … and his government. But Leo Shanahan wasn’t mentioned on the charge sheet. Only the ABC journalists were. Is she trying to protect him because she’s hoping to get friendly coverage of a case from his employer, The Australian? Is she going after the government’s perceived enemies at the ABC?
The prosecution requires the consent of the Attorney-General, Mr Christian Porter. Mr Porter consented, claiming on 28 June this year that all he did was agree to an independent decision by the CDPP, but as the Attorney-General he is no cipher. He is well aware he has the power to decline prosecution, for example, by questioning the general deterrent value of such court action. What is the utilitarian value of such a prosecution this former lecturer at the University of Western Australia could have asked? Relevant to this, on 1 July, three days after the Attorney’s press release acknowledging his consent, Niki Savva, former senior adviser to Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello and now journalist and commentator, said on ABC’s Insider: I just think it’s very fraught, the whole thing, because from my understanding, George Brandis had asked for an additional piece of information from the CDPP on this issue which fortuitously or not landed on Christian Porter’s desk when he took over with a very strong recommendation to prosecute. So I think if Porter had ignored that and it had subsequently come out, then he would have faced a lot of grief so I don’t think he had any choice but to proceed.
So everything hinges now on the court case. This extraordinary statement cries out for an explanation. How would Niki Savva know what Brandis had asked the CDPP for and whether it had been provided to Porter and when or what the CDPP’s brief contained? Is there a leak? Did Attorney-General Christian Porter leak the contents of the brief to Niki Savva either directly or through an intermediary or did the CDPP leak it? One thing we do know is that Ms Savva made the remarks and we know she’s not a fantasist. My colleague in the other place Andrew Wilkie referred Niki Savva’s statement to the AFP the next day, on 2 July. They wrote to him on 18 July and said they couldn’t accept the matter but would reassess if he provided more information. Of course, this is something that’s very difficult to do.
I asked some questions on notice to the Attorney-General last month and got a rather uninformative response, which I’ve subsequently written to him about. I’m curious to know why the AFP did not, at the very least, make a few calls to the A-G’s department. Surely the A-G would respond properly to a preliminary investigation by the AFP. It’s a question I will ask the AFP at our next estimates. Moving along, I, along with Mr Wilkie and my Senate colleagues Senator McKim and Senator
Storer, also asked the AFP to investigate the original conspiracy to defraud the government of East Timor under section 334 of the Criminal Code of the Australian Capital Territory. The AFP advised us that, should further material become available indicating Commonwealth offences were being committed, the AFP will reassess the matter. This is a catch-22 situation if I ever saw one. Clearly, the details of Mr Downer’s alleged conspiracy to defraud the government of East Timor are unavailable to people outside the principal alleged conspirators. How are we meant to get those details?
There’s a prima facie case of a section 334 violation, patently so because Witness K is an amenable witness. It’s up to the AFP to request an interview with Witness K himself. Intelligence officers are not above the law. We know this from a number of cases, including the High Court case of A v Hayden, also known as the ASIS case. The AFP advised me on 3 August this year that they have no jurisdictional issues investigating crimes committed by intelligence agencies, so why haven’t they? Perhaps the relations with Minister Frydenberg and the government are more important.
Perhaps the fact that the AFP are now technically part of the intelligence community that Mr Nick Warner happens to head has created resistance to investigate. I did ask the Attorney-General to confirm if the current head of ASIS, Mr Paul Symon, was informed of the prosecution of Witness K and Mr Collaery. I asked the same about Minister Frydenberg and Mr Nick Warner—no response. There are many more questions. Ms McNaughton is handling the case through her organised crime and counterterrorism unit as though Witness K and Bernard Collaery are potential terrorists. The avenue of attack sees the use of the National Security Information Act 2004, which was enacted during the war on terror in response to terrorist threats. It gave enormous power to the prosecution to seek orders from the court to classify information as confidential based on decisions by the executive as to what information is confidential. Of course some secrecy is needed. ASIS officers’ identities must be kept secret, because if foreign governments know who our spies are then they can identify the agents in their countries and take countermeasures against them. If foreign governments were to learn Witness K’s real name, they might be able to identify his agents in their countries and take countermeasures against them. People who betray their country would no longer dare risk their safety by dealing with Australian spies.
But Witness K and Mr Collaery appear fully committed to this kind of secrecy. Indeed, Witness K can give evidence whilst having his identity concealed. That is precisely what happened in the British inquest into the downing of an RAF Hercules aircraft in 2005. Among those killed was an Australian airman, Flight Lieutenant Pau Pardoel. All the special forces
witnesses who testified had their identities protected. The same method could easily be handled by the ACT Magistrates Court. But in this case a fundamental unfairness occurs because the prosecution is proposing orders that the entire matter be heard in secrecy.
This is from a government which repeatedly makes national security public interest claims in this place in respect of orders for production and has been found to be wrong consistently. This government has lost all credibility in this space. The approach is blatantly aimed at giving the executive the power to classify lawful behaviour as secret and to prevent that behaviour from being disclosed. In plain English, the government is trying to prosecute people for revealing its crimes.
The people of East Timor have traditionally been good allies and loyal friends of Australia. Their support of our soldiers fighting the Japanese in 1942 was vital. The East Timorese suffered 40,000 deaths due to aerial bombings and the destruction of villages suspected of sheltering Australian troops by the Japanese. Australian troops were protected at the expense of and the lives of many, many East Timorese people, Senator Neville Bonner said in a statement to the Senate in 1977. And yet the government ordered an espionage operation against East Timor’s negotiators to gain significant advantage in those negotiations. The operation has caused considerable disruption, ending only recently when we renegotiated the treaty—hopefully, this time without spying. In the period between the spying and now, East Timor’s sentiment towards Australia has deteriorated substantially and China has managed to increase its influence through the use of soft power.
The government sanctimoniously calls for a rules based international order, and that just looks like sheer humbug. It’s time for this farce to end; it’s time to bury this issue. We did the wrong thing to East Timor. It was called out by honourable people and now we seek to prosecute them. Australia committed a crime; the government committed a crime. Noone is above the law and we need to investigate that properly. All of this stuff to do with Witness K and Mr Collaery in the courts is just ripping the scar off a wound in East Timor, and I urge the government to rethink the process they’re going through. Thank you.
Public Meeting: Good Neighbour, Bad Neighbour – Australia’s Historical Relationship with East Timor
Australia East Timor Friendship Association South Australia Inc
AETFA-SA, PO BOX 240, GOODWOOD SA 5034
www.aetfa.org.au Secretary: bobhanney48@gmail.com PHONE: 08 8344 3511
The Australia East Timor Friendship Association (South Australia) invites you to a ………
PUBLIC MEETING:
TOPIC: Good Neighbour, Bad Neighbour:
Australia’s Historical Relationship with East Timor
SPEAKER: Senator Rex Patrick (Centre Alliance Senator for SA)
TIME: 3 PM
DAY: Sunday
DATE: 16 June 2019
VENUE: FILEF Meeting Room
15 Lowe St, Adelaide
OTHER SPEAKERS:
* Mr Sathish Dasan (newly appointed Timor-Lest Hon. Consul to SA)
* Speaker from the East Timorese Community (ETSA SA) will give an update on key issues in Timor-Leste
Nibbles and drinks provided
Members & intending members
Please Note: This public meeting will follow the AETFA SA AGM which will be at 2pm
ALL WELCOME
TIMOR-LESTE STILL NEEDS FRIENDS – PLEASE GET INVOLVED
Bob Hanney
Secretary
Email: bobhanney48@gmail.com
Phone: +61 8 83443511;
Andy Alcock
Information Officer
Email:
andyalcock@internode.on.net
Phone: +61 8 83710480; 0457 827 014
AETFA SA – 43 YEARS OF SOLIDARITY WITH TIMOR-LESTE FOR INDEPENDENCE & JUSTICE
(AETFA SA was originally the Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA until Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002)