Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services, Housing, Youth and Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on an issue that relates to a constituent of mine, a Mr Wilson, who believes that he is the subject of an investigation and of intrusive surveillance by ASIO. I know that members of parliament often hear these stories from constituents and most of the time we are given the unenviable task of explaining to them that it is unlikely that they are the subject of surveillance by ASIO. But in 1996, while living and working as an equity research analyst in the United States for SBC Warburg, Mr Wilson was given details of a confidential US state department report. The person who gave him the report revealed confidential details of the investigation into an incident in which seven people had been killed in and around the Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

The mine is owned by publicly traded Freeport McMoran. According to the information leaked by the United States person, the contents of the state department report noted that the US government had given the mining company a confidential soft reprimand that related to environmental abuses only rather than anything to do with the killings. As part of his duties as a mining analyst, Mr Wilson informed the market with regard to these incidents and suggested that there was an economic and political sensitivity in relation to them. He was subsequently sacked by his employer and black-listed from Wall Street and he believes that for that reason he has been the subject of ongoing surveillance.

I do not know whether it is true that he is the subject of ongoing surveillance. The difficulty for him is that, despite his own contacts with officials in Australia and despite the fact that I have written to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, he cannot know whether he is or is not the subject of surveillance. If allegations have been made against him, he has had no opportunity to answer those allegations. This has put enormous stress on his family. The reason I am raising this in the parliament is not because I am convinced either way of the truth of his concerns but because we have a situation where an Australian citizen is convinced—he makes a convincing case—and he has no opportunity to know whether there are allegations against him and how he can respond to them.