The trial of a former Australian spy on Thursday could shed light on allegations that Canberra used its intelligence services to defraud its impoverished neighbour East Timor during talks over gas contracts worth up to $40bn.
The case, which has been dubbed “Australia’s Watergate”, raises questions about how nations use spies to further commercial interests and follows the indictment of 10 Chinese intelligence officers on commercial espionage charges in the US this week.
Australian prosecutors have charged “Witness K”, a former senior intelligence officer, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery — a former attorney-general for the Australian Capital Territory — with revealing state secrets. They allege the two men broke the law by revealing that Alexander Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, ordered the bugging of East Timor’s Cabinet Office in 2004 in a move that benefited an Australian resources company, Woodside, to the detriment of East Timor.
Mr Downer later secured work as a consultant for Woodside when he stepped down from parliament in 2008 while Ashton Calvert, who was secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2004, joined the Woodside board when he retired from public service. Mr Calvert died in 2007, while Mr Downer was appointed Australia’s ambassador to the UK in 2014 — a position from which he allegedly tipped off the US about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Downer has refused to comment on whether he ordered the intelligence operation but previously told media the “Australian government was on Australia’s side in the negotiations” with East Timor. Woodside said it was unaware of any intelligence operation.
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