Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 19 February 1942, Darwin was bombed. Labor Prime Minister John Curtin said that Darwin had been bombed but not conquered. We will soon commemorate the 80th anniversary of those events.

What is less known is that that evening and the following morning, 20 February 1942, the Japanese imperial forces simultaneously invaded East and West Timor. The Timorese people assisted the Australian soldiers, called 'Sparrow Force', to escape and evade the Japanese soldiers in a classic guerrilla warfare campaign, and the Australian commandos knew that they owed their lives to the Timorese.

But, following the INTERFET mission in 1999 to 2000, the Howard coalition federal government thanked Timor-Leste by looting their natural resources rather than doing all that they could to support the young sovereign nation. Australians Bernard Collaery and Witness K blew the whistle on Australia's poor behaviour regarding the Timor Sea Treaty, and successive coalition governments have responded by prosecuting them.

I commend the Timorese National Parliament for their vote of solidarity with Mr Collaery on Monday. The Timorese parliament also reaffirmed its solidarity with the Australian people. I seek leave to table that vote of solidarity from the Timorese parliament.

Leave granted.

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