The Guardian reports on the state of Australia today.
Even John Le Carre & Graham Greene would be baffled by this stage and to think former Australian PM Turnbull came to political prominence bashing the Brits on similar fare.
The Guardian writes
A legal challenge to the secrecy of information involved in the prosecution of a lawyer for representing whistleblower Witness K will itself be held in secret.
On Monday, the ACT court of appeal began a two-day hearing of Bernard Collaery’s appeal but closed the court to the public within five minutes due to the requirements of the National Security Information Act.
Independent human rights lawyers and Labor have criticised the secrecy involved in the case, as well as its cost.
The commonwealth is prosecuting Witness K and Collaery, his former lawyer, for disclosing information about the bugging of Timor-Leste government buildings in 2004, an operation that gave Australia the upper hand in talks to carve up resources in the Timor Sea.
Witness K has signalled an intention to plead guilty but Collaery is fighting the charges. Details of the case and evidence are shrouded in secrecy due because the government has deemed them secret under the NSI Act.
The ACT supreme court initially upheld the secrecy of that information, which Collaery has now appealed.
On Monday the ACT chief justice, Helen Murrell, noted the appeal would begin with an application to lead further evidence and then asked parties’ views on closing the court to the public.
Bret Walker, counsel for Collaery, noted that he was not applying to do so but was “afraid” closing the court was required by the NSI Act, adding that he “[regrets] the appearance of that”.
The court remained closed through the rest of Monday’s hearing and – like the appeal at first instance – will not be reopened to the public.
Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said “the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, and the secrecy surrounding it, is wrong and undemocratic”.
“We should be protecting whistleblowers, not punishing them,” he said.
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