Bernard Collaery
on the challenge of representing the interests of Australian Intelligence Personnel
In July 2022, incoming Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC discontinued the much-publicised case against Canberra Lawyer, and former ACT Attorney-General Benard Collaery.
Nearly a decade earlier, in late 2013, Federal Police and ASIO officers had executed searches on Collaery's office and home. At that time Collaery acted for the Government of Timor-Leste, building a case in the Hague against the Australian Government, following revelations that the Australian secret intelligence service (ASIS) had instructed officers to eavesdrop on offices of key Timorese officials as they were negotiating an important treaty on the future of the Timor Sea with their Australian counterparts.
Both would subsequently face up to two years imprisonment on charges of conspiring to breach section 39 of the Intelligence Services Act, for allegedly communicating information obtained in the course of employment or an agreement with ASIS.
Although now discontinued, the prosecution received wide condemnation from human rights advocates, civil libertarians and the public. It has raised serious questions that go to the core of democratic values about the rights of whistleblowers, the chilling effects of prosecution and the limits of national security secrecy.
Join us to hear first-hand about what we can learn from this case and the challenges of representing Australian intelligence personnel from the man who lived it.
About Our Speaker
For over 40 years Bernard Collaery has successfully fought for clients in internationally and nationally prominent catastrophe law cases involving multimillion dollar medical malpractice lawsuits focusing on hypoxic birth and other medical misfortunes. These lawsuits reflect catastrophes almost as compelling as other large scale personal injury and dependency claims such as claims on behalf of the defendants of family members killed in the 1997 Thredbo landslide, the 1997 Royal Canberra Hospital implosion tragedy, the 1999 Glenbrook Rail accident in the Blue Mountains, the fire aboard HMAS Westralia in 1998, the 1998 loss of an RAAF F111 in South China Sea, the 2005 loss of an RAF Special Forces Hercules and eleven crew in Iraq and the loss of the Karlissa T on the Narooma Bar in 2003. Many of the large scale personal injury law suits have followed major inquests or inquiries at which Bernard Collaery has appeared as Counsel.
Bernard Collaery has also conducted, as Counsel, many criminal hearings in the Magistrates Court and many significant major crime trials as Counsel for the Accused in the Supreme Court. Bernard Collaery’s practice abroad has included assisting a witness in the inquest into the death of H.R.H. Diana, Princess of Wales, and the prominent and long-running inquest into the deaths aboard RAF Hercules XV 179 on 30 January 2005 in Iraq.
Throughout his career as attorney, advocate and politician (including ACT Attorney General), Bernard has been a fearless advocate for human rights on many fronts.
In the mid 1980s, Bernard Collaery was the founder of the Immigration Reform Group. In 1981–1982, Bernard Collaery conducted a review of the Australian Determination of Refugee Status for the Federal Government. In 1982–83, Bernard Collaery travelled on several occasions to Thursday Island, after which he represented West Papuan refugees in the Federal Court of Australia. He was an early refugee advocate in relation to Vietnamese boat people.
Bernard Collaery advised the East Timor Resistance for more than thirty years. He spent considerable time in East Timor working with Resistance leaders and providing advice on international law and other matters during the United Nations Administration 1999–2002 and thereafter. At the International Court, he worked with a team led by Professor Sir Elihu Lauterpacht CBE QC DDL and Professor Vaughan Lowe QC on matters relating to the maritime sea boundary dispute with Australia. For some years, Bernard Collaery was involved with the St James Ethics Centre’s regional ethics initiatives in North and South East Asia.
During his time as Attorney-General of the Australian Capital Territory, Bernard Collaery established an independent law reform process and under his direction, the present Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT) was drafted from start to finish, though introduced by successor government. Likewise, significant changes to criminal laws including Australia’s first laws criminalising the mere possession of child pornography and the legalisation of prostitution, fundamental reforms to will-making laws and a variety of initiatives that categorise the first Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory following self-government.
Currently Bernard Collaery is Patron and Honorary Solicitor of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service, and Honorary Solicitor of the Australian Bravery Association. He was the co-founder and Board Member of Job Solve, an innovative employment service for the brain injured. For many years, he was Honorary Solicitor for the National Brain Injury Foundation.
Most recently, Bernard won the Australian Lawyers Alliance 2018 Civil Justice Award recognising his work fighting for justice.