Mark Dreyfus flags Bernard Collaery case as priority if appointed attorney general

But he has criticised the four-year delay, the significant secrecy over parts of proceedings and the ballooning cost to taxpayers.

Collaery was alleged to have unlawfully disclosed information about an Australian Secret Intelligence Service (Asis) operation to bug the Timor-Leste government offices in 2004, as Australia was bartering with the fledgling country over access to oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Collaery was acting as the approved lawyer for Witness K, an experienced Asis officer, and helped Timor-Leste bring a case in the international courts alleging Australia had not acted in good faith during the talks, rendering the maritime treaty brokered by the two nations void.

Collaery was charged in 2018, after then attorney general Christian Porter gave the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions his consent. The case has since been bogged down in battles over secrecy and access to documents.