Tom Allard – The Australian government has asked the federal police to investigate if lawyer Bernard Collaery and a former spy can be charged with disclosing classified information afte

Philip Dorling – The federal government has successfully blocked the release of secret archives that would reveal Australian knowledge of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor, arguing th

Tom Allard – The government has told East Timor the fledgling nation can't tax a lucrative pipeline from a Timor Sea gas field, in a move that has further soured relations between Austr

Marian Wilkinson and Peter Cronau – Late last year the office of Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery was raided by agents from ASIO and the Federal Police.

Peter Cronau – The Australian Government has warned East Timor there will be tough consequences over its decision to launch international arbitration proceedings over its maritime bound

When the doorbell rang about 9.30am at 5 Brockman Street, Narrabundah, in suburban Canberra, Chloe Preston was starting her day at work as a legal clerk.

Kate Lamb – The highest court at The Hague ruled on Monday that "Australia shall not interfere in anyway in communications between Timor-Leste and its advisors in connection with the pe

Tom Allard – Australia has been ordered to cease spying on East Timor and its legal advisers, in a landmark decision by the International Court of Justice relating to a bitter dispute b

Kim Doyle – In early 2013, the Australian Signals Directorate was spying on Indonesian officials involved in trade negotiations with the US.

Hagar Cohen: Hello, and welcome to Background Briefing, I'm Hagar Cohen.

Attorney-General George Brandis has again defended security service raids on Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery who was helping East Timor in its case against Australia.

Claims that Australia spied on East Timorese negotiators during oil and gas treaty talks in 2004 are at the centre of a legal row that could throw the treaty into doubt.

Daniel Flitton – Vandals have targeted the Australian embassy in East Timor, spray painting a blood-stained parody of the Australian coat of arms with a kangaroo and emu sucking a barre

Philip Dorling – Australia's chief intelligence watchdog has been drawn into a legal battle over government claims that Australia's relations with Indonesia are too fragile to allow the

Paul Cleary – It was a case of saving the best to last.

Tom Allard – In the International Court of Justice this week, as lawyers from Australia and East Timor traded barbs and legal argument in equal measure, the emotions have been raw.

Kate Lamb – At the international court of justice in The Hague this week, the tiny half-island nation of Timor-Leste has accused Australia of violating its sovereignty in a souring batt

Tom Allard – The Australian government has admitted it wants to block a former spy turned whistleblower from giving evidence to an international tribunal where East Timor is challenging

Daniel Hurst – Timor-Leste has told the international court of justice it rejects the "careless and outrageous" suggestion it was encouraging the violation of Australian laws about inte

Tom Allard – Australia has accused East Timor of making "frankly, offensive" remarks before the International Court of Justice about Attorney-General George Brandis, as its lawyers sugg

Mary Gearin – Australia has rejected East Timor's arguments that it has the right to demand the return of materials seized in an ASIO raid last year.

Tom Allard – East Timor has called on the International Court of Justice to deliver a "clear, firm and severe" condemnation of Australia for using ASIO agents to raid the office of its

Tom Allard – Attorney-General George Brandis has given an extraordinary undertaking not to read highly sensitive documents seized by ASIO agents in a raid on East Timor's lawyer last ye

Amsterdam – East Timor demanded on Monday that Australia return seized documents relating to the two countries' negotiations over oil and gas reserves thought to be worth tens of billio

Daniel Hurst – Australia's "illegal" seizure of documents from a Canberra-based lawyer acting for Timor-Leste falls short of the high standards expected of a nation with considerable in

David Robie – When Timor-Leste opens its lawsuit against Australia in a United Nations courtroom spy drama in The Hague this week with the economic survival of this Asia-Pacific country

The Hague – Tiny, young East Timor drags its giant neighbour Australia before the United Nations' top court next week in a cloak-and-dagger case with billions of dollars in natural reso

Richard Ackland – Let's try to join a few dots.

Jonathan Pearlman – Australia faces growing accusations that it spied extensively on Timor Leste during crucial talks over a deal to share gas and oil fields worth an estimated A$40 bil

Richard Ackland – Loose ends tend to clutter our lives and, supposedly, a new year is a good time to tidy them up or burn them to cinders.

Tom Allard – A balmy summer morning, the leafy back streets of Narrabundah in suburban Canberra, and some 15 besuited ASIO agents are ringing the doorbell of a modest red brick home tha

Tom Allard – For Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, the news that Australia spied on her adopted homeland under the cover of an aid program cut especially deep.

Timor-Leste has instituted proceedings in the UN's top court in relation to Asio raids on the office of a Canberra lawyer representing the tiny country.

The Australian Federal Police has denied seizing a computer and phones belonging to relatives of East Timor's finance and resources ministers.

Peter Lloyd, staff – East Timor's former president Jose Ramos-Horta says Australia would never have secured a seat on the United Nations Security Council had claims that it spied on its

Tom Allard – East Timor's government believes it has identified the members of a team of four Australian spies who allegedly bugged its government offices, describing it as "very distur

Peter Lloyd, staff – East Timor says the Australian Government knew it would call upon the testimony of four whistleblowers in its dispute regarding a $40 billion oil and gas treaty.

Julian Drape – East Timor says it won't be deterred from challenging a multi-billion dollar oil and gas treaty with Australia in The Hague despite raids on a lawyer's office and the hom

Lenore Taylor – The inspector general of intelligence and security has issued an unusual public statement to deny that any former spy had raised concerns with her or her predecessor abo

Nick Miller – East Timor's government will not be deterred in pressing its case to scrap an oil treaty worth billions of dollars over claims of spying by Australia, an international neg

The Australia East Timor Friendship Association of South Australia today released a statement regarding the spying scandal against Timor-Leste by Australian security.

Tom Allard – The former senior spy who blew the whistle on alleged Australian bugging of East Timor's government took his case to the intelligence watchdog but it did not investigate an

East Timor's prime minister says he is shocked by the Australian Government's decision to authorise raids on a lawyer and whistleblower who were set to provide evidence against Australi

Jane Wardell, Sydney – Attorney-General George Brandis said on Wednesday raids by Australia's domestic spy agency on the Canberra offices of a lawyer representing East Timor over Austra

A lawyer representing East Timor in its spying case against Australia says his office has been raided by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

Katharine Murphy and Lenore Taylor – A first-hand witness to alleged Australian spying against Timor-Leste in 2004 has been detained and searched at his Canberra home, according to a pr