“All processing involves a balance of interests. The balance of interests may change over time. That’s a case like that, ”Dreyfus said.
Dreyfus said the decision did not represent a departure from the practice of protecting government secrets, but the Coalition condemned the intervention as a dangerous precedent.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the decision did not represent a departure from the practice of protecting government secrets. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Governments need to protect secrets, and that government stands firm in our commitment to keeping Australians safe by keeping secrets out of the wrong hands,” Dreyfus said. “The government’s long-standing practice has been to neither confirm nor deny the claims made on intelligence issues and I will strictly adhere to that practice.”
Dreyfus suspended prosecution under section 71 of the Judiciary Act, revoking the authorization given in 2018 by then-Attorney General Christian Porter for the Commonwealth Attorney General to file charges against Collaery and Witness K.
Shadow Attorney General Julian Leeser said Dreyfus’ intervention in the case undermined the work of Australia’s national security agencies.
“This action sends a dangerous message to those who want to hurt Australia by dealing with government secrets and shows that Labor cannot be trusted to manage our national security,” he said.
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Collaery’s case was embroiled in legal battles over the degree of secrecy that should be applied to his criminal trial and involved 10 separate hearings in the ACT Supreme Court. After the Court of Appeal ruled in October that Collaery’s trial would be held in an open court, the Morrison government launched a bid from the High Court to prevent the full sentence of the judge in chief. reach the public domain.
Dr Kate Harrison, a partner at Gilbert + Tobin, the law firm representing Collaery pro bono, said the case had illustrated the degree of secrecy allowed by Australia’s national security laws, which allowed listen to the cases behind closed doors.
“The approach threatens a defendant’s ability to receive a fair trial,” Harrison said in a statement.
Gilbert + Tobin said Collaery’s legal team should be excluded from another upcoming hearing in which the court should receive more secret evidence from the Commonwealth.
In June 2020, Witness K received a three-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty, but Collaery decided to fight the charges against him.
Following the election of the Albanian government, human rights defenders and whistleblowers renewed their calls for ministerial consent for the withdrawal of the prosecution.
Several members of parliament also urged Dreyfus to intervene in the case, including Green Sen. Nick McKim, ACT Sen. David Pocock, Kooyong MP Monique Ryan and Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel.
Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Center, said the decision heralded an “important day for Australian democracy”.
“Bernard Collaery should never have been prosecuted. The attorney general has done the right thing and we should applaud him for that,” Pender said.
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He also urged Dreyfus to intervene in the trials of former military lawyer David McBride, who leaked documents to journalists exposing alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, and Richard Boyle, who denounced little practices. ethics in the Australian Tax Office.
“The complainants are making Australia a better place. The ongoing prosecutions of David McBride and Richard Boyle are not in the public interest. These cases must also be abandoned, as a matter of urgency,” Pender said.
Dreyfus declined to comment on the McBride and Boyle cases.
“I will not comment on other cases about which I may or may not have received information. Mr. Collaery’s case was an exceptional case,” he said.
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