Zoom forum with Bernard Collaery, currently on trial in 'Australia's biggest political scandal'
SEARCH Foundation and the New International Bookshop invite you to join this Zoom briefing with Bernard Collaery, discussing his book Oil Under Troubled Water. Mr Collaery is currently on trial over charges stemming from the Australian Coalition government's scandalous and illegal bugging of the Timor Leste cabinet during Timor Leste's negotiations in the 2000s with Australia over the maritime sea boundary and oil deposits below the sea bed between the two countries.
Oil Under Troubled Water relates the sordid history of Australian government dealings with East Timor, and how the actions of both major political parties have enriched Australia's elite and its corporate allies at the expense of its tiny neighbour and wartime ally, one of the poorest nations in the world.
Charged, along with 'Witness K', for allegedly breaching the Intelligence Services Act, Bernard Collaery provides the backstory to Australian politics' 'biggest scandal'.
In May 2018 Bernard Collaery, a former Attorney-General of the Australian Capital Territory and long-term legal counsel to the government of East Timor, was charged by the Australian Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions with conspiracy to breach the Intelligence Services Act 2001. He was forbidden from talking about the charges against him, but under parliamentary privilege independent MP Andrew Wilkie revealed what has since been described as 'Australian politics' biggest scandal'.
Five years earlier, after ASIO officers raided Collaery's home and office, Collaery told journalists that ASIS had been bugging the East Timorese government during negotiations over Timor Sea oil. He was about to represent East Timor; as well as calling the evidence of a former senior ASIS agent known publicly only as Witness K, at The Hague in a case against the Australian government.
About Bernard Collaery
Bernard Collaery is an Australian solicitor and barrister who specialises in litigation in high-profile catastrophic personal injury cases. He has acted for families of victims of the Thredbo landslide, the Royal Canberra Hospital demolition tragedy, the Glenbrook rail disaster in the Blue Mountains, the fire aboard HMAS Westralia and the tragic loss of an RAAF F111 in the South China Sea.
Throughout his career as a solicitor, advocate and politician Bernard has been a fearless advocate for human rights. During his tenure as Attorney-General for the Australian Capital Territory, he introduced an independent law reform process that culminated in the drafting of human rights legislation, including anti-discrimination legislation.
Bernard Collaery advised the East Timor Resistance for more than thirty years, providing advice on international law and other matters during the United Nations Transitional Administration from 1999. He acted for East Timor at the International Court of Justice in relation to a maritime sea boundary dispute with Australia.
Currently Bernard Collaery is patron and honorary solicitor of various charitable and non-profit organisations serving Indigenous Australians and marginalised sectors of the community.
Zoom meeting details
(no registration necessary, just click the link or copy and paste into your browser)
Go to this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82619620713?pwd=NjZXYmNwSUhrSkNqcUtPdUU1KzFNQT09
Meeting ID: 826 1962 0713
Password: 696347
Or dial by your location, and enter the Meeting ID above:
+61 731 853 730 Australia
+61 861 193 900 Australia
+61 8 7150 1149 Australia
+61 2 8015 6011 Australia
+61 3 7018 2005 Australia
SEARCH Foundation
