Australian tribunal opens part of Timor-Leste bugging hearings — The Guardian

In Australia, the Administrative Review Tribunal has ruled to hold a public unclassified portion of hearings concerning documents that may be linked to the alleged bugging of Timor-Leste officials during negotiations over oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea in 2004. The full hearing, scheduled for late November, will last three days.

The decision was made in response to a lawsuit by former senator Rex Patrick, who is seeking access to 2004 government documents held by the National Archives of Australia. As The Guardian reports, the Australian government and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, ASIS, continue to neither confirm nor deny either that the operation was conducted or that the relevant documents exist.

Open and closed parts of the hearings

Government representatives asked to exclude the media and the public even from the formally open part of the hearings, and to provide the transcript only after it had been reviewed by intelligence officials. They explained this by the risk of inadvertent disclosure of classified information. At the same time, parts of the hearings at which classified materials will be discussed will still be held behind closed doors.

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Deputy tribunal president Peter Britten-Jones rejected the government's arguments. In his ruling, he stated that the officials who will give evidence have sufficient qualifications and experience to prevent the disclosure of protected information. In his assessment, the risk of accidental disclosure of such materials is insignificant.

Negotiations over Greater Sunrise

According to the case description, the requested documents may have concerned Australia's strategy in negotiations with Timor-Leste over control of Timor Sea resources after the country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. The negotiations determined the arrangements for joint control of the Greater Sunrise gas fields, whose resources are estimated at more than $50 billion.

According to the publication, in 2004 ASIS operatives installed listening devices in key Timor-Leste government offices to determine the other side's negotiating position. In 2006, Australia and Timor-Leste agreed to divide Greater Sunrise 50-50. In 2017, Timor-Leste withdrew its claims concerning Australian espionage in The Hague, and the following year the parties signed a new maritime boundary agreement.