With the dumping of Christian Porter from the role of attorney-general, the instigator of the government’s vexatious pursuit of Witness K and Bernard Collaery is gone.
In his place, however, is a woman with even less credibility to continue the persecution of two remarkable patriots who exposed the crimes of the Howard government and its betrayal of the people of Timor-Leste.
Michaelia Cash is spectacularly inappropriate to be attorney-general. Her refusal to cooperate with an Australian Federal Police investigation into a crime committed in her office is a matter of public record. AFP deputy commissioner Leanne Close told Senate estimates in 2019 all about about Cash’s refusal to cooperate with its investigation into leaking by her staff:
Senator Murray Watt: How did you describe the information that minister Cash and minister Keenan provided you? They sent you a letter?
Leanne Close: They did. They sent the AFP a letter in relation to this inquiry.
Watt: And would you say that that amounts to a witness statement?
Close: No. I would not classify it as a witness statement.
Watt: So, neither minister Keenan nor minister Cash provided a witness statement to the AFP?
Close: That’s correct.
Watt: But they were asked to do so?
Close: Yes. We wanted to have the opportunity to speak to them both and see if they could provide information to support our unauthorised disclosure investigation.
Watt: But they declined your request and just sent you a letter?
Close: They sent us a letter.
Watt: How many times did you ask each of minister Keenan and minister Cash to provide you with a statement?
Close: At least two occasions — each office.
Watt: In writing?
Close: In writing, as well as verbally through their staff.
All of this was in relation to a bogus raid on the Australian Workers’ Union designed to embarrass Bill Shorten. Unusually, the AFP believed there was sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution of a staff member of the government in relation to the crime, but they were overruled by the government-appointed Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
Cash’s repeated refusal to cooperate with the AFP was a cover-up of what had gone on in her office — of a crime that should, according to the AFP, have been prosecuted.
Now she’s in charge of the prosecution of two men who exposed a far worse cover-up by the Howard government, one shamefully perpetuated by the Rudd and Gillard governments.
It is Cash who is now in charge of trying to make sure the trial of Collaery is kept secret, ostensibly on the grounds of national security, but in fact to continue that cover-up.
K and Collaery are two men who have faithfully served Australia, in different roles, throughout their lives. They have achieved far more by way of public service than Porter, Cash and the rest of cabinet put together. Now their persecution is being overseen by a woman who engaged in a cover-up and defied a legitimate investigation of a crime. It’s even more farcical than when they were being pursued by the over-privileged party boy Porter.
Cash must withdraw the attorney-general’s approval for the prosecutions of the two men as one of her first acts as a permanent appointment to the role.
An apology to both men should also be forthcoming, especially to Collaery, whose trial has been deliberately and vexatiously dragged out and delayed by Porter, in flagrant breach of his duty to uphold the Commonwealth’s model litigant status.
The CDPP might also enlighten us as to why K and Collaery were charged but somehow Cash’s staff weren’t. Anything less would be an open mockery of the vaunted rule of law the government claims to be so obsessed with.
Should the new attorney-general apologise to Bernard Collaery and Witness K? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say section.
Highlight of the recent senate estimates was Michaelia daring Murray Watt in her ridiculously over-enunssssssiated boganese to repeat ‘outside this place’ his factual claim that she did not co-operate with the Federal Police in their investigation into leaks from her office.
Another case of Scotty FM and his magic pudding and magic wand.Nothing to see here. Someone give us an ICAC with all the body parts needed including teeth,and a functioning brain that is able to apply morals and ethics to decision making and the strength of character to retrospectively chase rats down burrows.
Teflon-coated mudslingers have no place in our parliament. Move on nothing to see here is not good enough
Abandoning the pursuit of Witness K & Collaery would be an admission that several Coalition governments were wrong. What are the chances of the single-minded Cash admitting to that…
It is a blight on both Rudd & Gillard that they, too, perpetuated these scandalous & amoral prosecutions.
Roxon, Dreyfus?
And Rudd’s failure to follow through with his “pre-election policy” of a RC into “our” involvement in the invasion of Iraq – one thing I think about whenever he comes along now, to tell us what’s ‘wrong with this government and Murdoch’.
That suggestion for a prosecution from the DPP was ignored and shuffled to the bottom of the IN tray by Roxon, Dreyfus and Brandis. It was supposed to die there.
No, it took the mean and tricky combination of Christian Prosperity Cult and ultra- Right wing, ostensibly “born again christian” who is known as spoilt useless party boy son of a very wealthy Liberal Party power broker who had developed a taste for “Secret Trials and Jailing”.
After Porter had successfully prosecuted Witness J, a mentally ill ex-serviceman for using the wrong fax line to request help.
His Dunning Kruger syndrome fed his blood lust for vindictive prosecutions and so, he started the actions against Witness K who is also mentally ill and Bernard Colleary, ex- ACT Attorney General and the Spooks lawyer.
Porter’s behaviour has been criticized by 3 federal court judges for failing standards required of the government to be a model litigant.
Let us see if Michaela Cash knows how to get the government out of trouble, before this whole things goes off like “Shit filled landmine”.
Exactly ! The ALP are not worth voting for either. They are just the other side of the same badly flawed coin. We are in deep poo!
Nonsense if you can’t see the difference you are just not looking.
The few differences in attitude & intentions that I can see are equally unattractive & reprehensible.
If you want to play ‘whataboutery’ why don’t you go follow and comment on the rich content of SkyAD/NewsCorp, RT or Fox; that’s right you can’t.
You make very good points Bernard. And everyone knows none of them will matter to this government.
“Should the new attorney-general apologise to Bernard Collaery and Witness K?”
YES ! Of course she should BUT Cash is such a shocking choice and I don’t think things will change.
Such a horrible person to be in that position.
A horrible person for any position, but especially for AG….K and Collaery must be horrified.
except ‘missionary’ (perhaps).!
The Morrison LNP Government stinks.
How can it possibly continue?
How many more Politicians have to go on sick leave, on full pay, before one is sacked and Morrison has a hang Parliament? At the moment he is up to number four.
Imagine if this was the Labor Party.