[1][2] After successfully completing a doctorate at Flinders University in South Australia,[3] Philip Dorling joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1992.
[1] While working with Laurie Brereton, on 16 September 2000, (the first day after the opening of the Sydney Olympics), Dorling's home was raided by the Australian Federal Police on allegations he had leaked confidential information about East Timor to the media.
[7] After leaving Laurie Brereton's office following the 2001 Federal election, Dorling spent two years (2002-2003) working as an advisor to Daryl Melham, the Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs, a role in which he contributed to the Labor Party's approach to counter-terrorism legislation introduced by Prime Minister John Howard's Government following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
[18][19] Following his work with The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Dorling contributed to The Saturday Paper in 2015 with articles on United States espionage against Japan and Saudi influence in Australia.
In June 2017 Dorling briefly returned to journalism and with Fairfax Media colleagues Baker and McKenzie published in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald a further expose of Helen's Liu's links with Chinese military intelligence officer Liu Chaoying who had been identified as a significant figure in the 1996 United States 'Chinagate' political funding scandal.