ACT court yet to release sentencing details of man secretly convicted and detained, despite approval

The sentencing details of a man secretly convicted and detained in a Canberra prison have been cleared for release by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, but the ACT supreme court is yet to publish them.

The independent national security legislation monitor (INSLM), Grant Donaldson, revealed in his 2021-22 annual report that in June 2021 he prepared a redacted version of sentencing remarks about Alan Johns, also known as Witness J, which are yet to be published.

On Thursday, Dreyfus ordered his department to conduct a review of all commonwealth secrecy provisions, including 11 general secrecy offences, 487 specific secrecy offences and over 200 nondisclosure duties in commonwealth legislation.

Dreyfus noted the Coalition government had agreed to such a review in June 2018 and December 2020 after two recommendations by the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, but failed to conduct one.