Bernard Collaery

Bernard Joseph Edward Collaery (born 12 October 1944) is an Australian barrister, lawyer and former politician.

Collaery arrived in Australia in 1945 and was educated at the Christian Brothers College in Wollongong, New South Wales and at the Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws.

Prior to entering politics, Collaery was a First Secretary in the Australian Embassy in France.

Collaery was a member of the Australian Capital Territory's first Legislative Assembly for the Residents Rally party, from 1989 to 1992.

He served as Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney-General from 1989 to 1991 in the Kaine Alliance Government.

Collaery was elected to the Assembly at its first general election, held in 1989 and was leader of the Residents Rally Party, "a community-based urban green party".

The life of the first Assembly, a multi-member single electorate unicameral body, was characterised by a hung parliament and significant political instability.

Confidence was waning in the minority Follett Labor government.

On 5 December 1989, Collaery moved a motion in the Assembly:

The vote was resolved in the affirmative (10 votes to 7 votes), and Trevor Kaine was elected as Chief Minister as leader of an Alliance Government, comprising members of the Liberal Party and the Residents Rally.

Collaery was subsequently appointed Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney-General in the Kaine Liberal government with responsibility for welfare and community services; housing; sport and recreation; and youth.

On 29 May 1991, Kaine announced to the Assembly that members of Residents Rally had met the previous evening and decided to advise the Chief Minister that they wanted a review of some planning decisions relating to ACT Government school sites that had been taken without the involvement of Collaery as the Deputy Chief Minister and Leader of the Rally.

Those concerns had been conveyed to the Chief Minister in a letter delivered on 28 May 1991, which indicated that if the Chief Minister tabled variations to the plan, the Residents Rally members would be forced to vote against them.

That account of events was supported by comments from Rally member Dr Hector Kinloch.

The debate that followed showed that Collaery had been removed from his position as Deputy Chief Minister and Attorney General because he and the two remaining Rally members in the Assembly (Norm Jensen and Dr Hector Kinloch) could not support planning decisions affecting school sites.

Comments by Mr Duby, one of the three ministers involved in the decisions in Collaery's absence, confirmed that account of the reason for the fall of the Alliance Government.

On 6 June 1991, a motion of no confidence in Kaine, as Chief Minister, was passed, with Collaery voting in favour.

Rosemary Follett resumed the Chief Ministership, and Collaery sat on the backbenches.

He was unsuccessful in seeking re-election to the Assembly at the 1992 general election.

In the 1993 federal election, Collaery was an independent candidate for election to the Australian Senate, representing the Australian Capital Territory, but was unsuccessful.

Collaery is the principal of Collaery Lawyers, a Canberra-based law firm with an international law division embracing international maritime and treaty law, refugee and civil rights law.

The civil division embraces catastrophe law, principally catastrophic personal injury cases and high level dependency claims arising from catastrophic multi-victim cases, and medical negligence.

The criminal division embraces all forms of trial work including coronial law.

Collaery has appeared as counsel in various jurisdictions.

As a barrister, Collaery has represented plaintiffs in a number of high-profile cases, including:

Collaery has represented the interests of the people of Timor-Leste over a long period of time.

Collaery advocated on behalf of Timor-Leste and was legal advisor to the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) in the critical period up until formal independence in 2002.

Collaery was representing a witness in a case brought by the Timor-Leste government against the Australian Government over the bugging of the Timor-Leste cabinet offices during the negotiations for a petroleum and gas treaty in 2004.

The case was before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in the Netherlands.

The Australian Attorney-General, George Brandis, confirmed that he authorised a request by ASIO for a search warrant on Collaery's office, to protect Australia's national security.

Collaery was also accused of sharing information with ABC journalists about the 2004 bugging operation.

Former Victorian premier and adviser to Timor-Leste, Steve Bracks called the prosecution "political".

Collaery and "Witness K" were accused of conspiring to communicate secret information to the Government of Timor-Leste some time between May 2008 and May 2013.

In 2013 Collaery alleged that two agents from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation raided his Canberra office and seized electronic and paper files.

One of Australia's most senior lawyers, Nicholas Cowdery QC, questioned whether the prosecution was in the public interest and described the long delay between the 2013 raid and the prosecution as highly unusual.

In June 2018, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions charged Collaery under the National Security Information (NSI) Act with disclosing protected intelligence information.

The case relates to the Australia–East Timor spying scandal, in which the Australian government bugged Timor-Leste offices in order to gain an advantage during commercial negotiations to carve up the resource-rich Timor Sea.

However, in July 2022, the charges were waived by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

Collaery was born in Caversham, England, four months after his father, Flying Officer Edward Francis Collaery (RAAF) was killed in action.

In June 2018, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions filed criminal charges against Collaery and his client, known as "Witness K", in the Australia–East Timor spying scandal.