Law, Politics and Intelligence: A Life of Robert Hope by Peter Edwards (review)

This biography of Justice Robert Hope by Peter Edwards makes a major contribution to the story of the development of security intelligence and intelligence organisations in Australia. By the time of the Whitlam Labor government (1972–75) the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was in disarray. During the Vietnam War, ASIO had spent vast resources keeping watch over myriad groups of protesters, many of whom posed no threat to the security of Australia. Earlier, during the 1950s, ASIO had conducted surveillance of not just anyone who was thought to be a member of the Communist Party, but also those who were thought to be friends or acquaintances of these members. A former leader of the Labor Party, H. V. Evatt, had claimed that in 1954 ASIO had engineered the defection of the Soviet diplomat and intelligence officer Vladimir Petrov to embarrass the Labor Party and hence to keep it out of power. In the 1970s, many in the Labor Party still believed this to be true, and a considerable number of them thought that the only solution was to abolish ASIO. In March 1973, fewer than four months after the Whitlam government came to power, its Attorney General, Lionel Murphy, had raided the ASIO offices looking for evidence that ASIO had withheld from him information about Croatian terrorist activities.

It was in this environment that in August 1974 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam appointed Robert Hope, a judge of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, to head a royal commission into Australia's intelligence and security organisations, including the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), which had not then been publicly acknowledged. Hope would conclude the commission in 1977. Later, at the request of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Hope would conduct a review of Commonwealth security arrangements. Later again, at the request of Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Hope would conduct a royal commission into Australia's security and intelligence agencies, following the Combe–Ivanov affair in early 1983.

Robert Hope had been appointed a judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court, in 1969 at the age of 50, and had developed a reputation as a liberal, having been President of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties and also a member of the Australian Council for the Arts. In 1973, the Whitlam government appointed him to head an inquiry into the National Estate, which led in 1975 to Parliament passing the Heritage Commission Act.

Hope was therefore well placed to head the royal commission into intelligence and security organisations, even though he knew little of their workings. The first issue he had to tackle was whether Australia needed ASIO and ASIS. In the case of ASIO, how could the organisation balance the threat to civil liberties against the need to protect the nation against espionage and subversion? Hope concluded that both organisations were necessary, and then went about making recommendations that would improve their effectiveness and accountability. Taken together, the three inquires set up Australia's intelligence and security organisations for the next three decades. Facing intense bureaucratic resistance, not all his recommendations were achieved in the short term, although changes made in more recent years mirror those Hope recommended. The building housing the Office of National Assessments in Canberra – one of Hope's recommendations – is named the Robert Marsden Hope Building.

There was, of course, more to Hope's career than his conduct of the inquiries. Had he not been involved in them, perhaps he would have been appointed to the High Court. At one stage, perhaps, he was even being considered for appointment as Governor-General. Certainly, he had a distinguished legal career, first as a barrister specialising in property law, and then sitting for 20 years on the Supreme Court of New South Wales. At the same time, he was involved in many community organisations, including the theatre and music. For 22 years, he was Chancellor of the newly established University of Wollongong. He died in 1999, aged 80...