Australian whistleblowers who exposed dirty dealings by their government are to go on trial

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In 2004 the right-of-centre Australian government led by Prime Minister John Howard bugged the offices of the fledgling East Timorese government.

Why?

To swindle the impoverished nation out of its valuable oil resources during critical treaty negotiations.

An Australian intelligence office and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery blew the whistle on the potentially unlawful bugging.

Now, 14 years later, the Attorney General [Australia’s highest legal officer, who is a member of the government] Christian Porter is pressing charges against these whistleblowers.

Politicians, diplomats, academics, lawyers are outraged.

The people power campaigning group, GetUp!, which has more than a million paid up members, is stirring up a public protest campaign.

“This is an attack on the people’s right to know about government crimes. This is how a police state begins,” GetUp! fumes.

“To many people it's almost unimaginable that the Australian government can proceed with such a ferocious act of intimidation,” the campaigning group writes.

“A lot of people in legal circles are horrified by the government’s behaviour. This is Australia, not Russia,” GetUp! quotes Stephen Charles QC, a former Court of Appeal Judge.

A former military intelligence office, now independent member of the federal parliament, describes the legal action against the two whistleblowers as “an act of bastardry”.

The prestigious Sydney Morning Herald newspaper condemns the prosecution as “a disgraceful act of revenge”. It notes that the former foreign minister, Alexander Downer, took on a “lucrative consultancy with Woodside Petroleum”, an Australian corporation greedy for the rich marine oil deposits between Australia and East Timor.

While Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop tried to avoid accountability during her trip to East Timor this week, former East Timor president, José Ramos-Horta joined a groundswell of people calling on Australia to drop the prosecution of Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery.

Ramos-Horta said that the two men "acted out of conscience" and "reflected the very best of Australia".

“On September 12, Witness K and his lawyer will have to face court for that very act, which gives us a small window to make sure people are aware of Witness K and what this case means for our democracy,” GetUp! urges.

You can see other comments collected by GetUp! in a video by clicking here. The site also enables sharing on social media.