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Labor shelves election promise for inquiry into prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Labor has quietly shelved its pre-election promise to hold an inquiry into the controversial 2004 Timor-Leste bugging scandal and the former Coalition government’s pursuit of ex-spy Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery.
In August 2021, amid heavy criticism over the secrecy shrouding the cases of Collaery and Witness K, Labor promised to hold an inquiry if elected after it voted with the then Coalition government to block a crossbench push for one.
Collaery had been charged for his alleged role helping Witness K reveal an Australian espionage mission to spy on Timor-Leste during negotiations over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea in 2004.
Gallagher, at the time, said Labor would reject the former senator Rex Patrick’s motion to refer Australia’s involvement in the Timor-Leste bugging operation to an inquiry after determining the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security (PJCIS) was limited in its powers.
On Tuesday, the ACT court of appeal released the judgments relating to how much of the prosecution of Collaery could be conducted in public, more than two years after a landmark ruling lifted the veil on the lawyer’s trial.
The federal government fought against the full judgment’s release, after it was handed down in October 2021, arguing a number of redactions needed to be applied in the interests of national security.
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