Justice for Bernard Collaery must be the beginning of decisive action on whistleblowers

‘In the prosecution of Bernard Collaery, the charade around secrecy made a mockery of open justice.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

It was easy to feel hopeless, watching from the sidelines as a brave whistleblower went through hell.

For four years now, Bernard Collaery has been in legal battle with the Australian government – dozens of judgments, scores of hearings, millions of dollars and a trial approaching. All for doing the right thing, for allegedly speaking up about government wrongdoing. And what wrongdoing it was: Australia’s espionage against an impoverished, war-torn neighbour, to cheat it of billions of dollars in the extraction of oil and gas from underneath the Timor Sea.