John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last month, after years of interest, and in light of the recent parliamentary inquiry into Australia/Timor-Leste relations, I decided to undertake a little fact-finding mission of my own to our neighbour. During my time there I was fortunate enough to meet the President of Timor-Leste as well as a number of government ministers and senior elected and unelected representatives from a number of key ministries and institutions. I was also fortunate enough to meet with the everyday people who are a part of a nation that really needs them and with people who are strengthening their nation's capacity to become the strongest stable democracy in the region, surpassing Australia if we keep heading the way we are going.

I take this opportunity to thank two of my many new Timorese friends, who were extremely kind and welcoming of me into their country. They include Nelson, who drove me around and was always happy to laugh at my quips, and Marco, who provided me with a night-time tour of Dili and shared with me his personal experiences of the 12 November Santa Cruz massacre, in 1991.

In 1999, the people of Timor-Leste voted for a free, independent and democratic Timor-Leste. They said to the world that they wanted to add to it and not be used by it. The Timorese people were ruled by the Portuguese for between 400 to 500 years, until 1975, when Indonesian forces, with the consent of the Australia government, invaded Timor-Leste and ruled them with oppression and neglect, until 1999. During this time there were at least 100,000 conflict related deaths as well as a further 180,000 deaths due to conflict related hunger. These figures are seen to be conservative and do not allow us to truly feel the pain, anguish, desperation and the strongest sense of loss that the Timorese people felt, with our government's consent and knowledge.

Finally, on 20 May 2002, the people of Timor-Leste became a part of a globally recognised democratic independent state. This date is also a shared milestone date for the Australian and Timorese governments, because it was on this date that the Timor Sea Treaty was signed. It can be said that the Timorese government did not truly understand the ramifications of the ratification of this treaty. The Australian government tied the Timorese government from head to toe in their final moments of duress. The Australian government arranged that the Timorese government sign a treaty that any other experienced democratic government would not have signed in the most trying of times.

It is the topic of bilateral relations at a government-to-government level that I address this evening. There is currently an inquiry being held by our Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade into Australia's relationship with Timor-Leste, and this topic is precisely the first point in the terms of reference. Unfortunately, submissions ended before my fact-finding mission had begun. Our relations in recent times with Timor-Leste have been strong—not because of our government but, rather, because of our people. In 1975, when our journalists went missing from Balibo—massacred—we did not hear a boo from our government. Rather, we heard rumblings of concern from average Australians. In the 1990s, our government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to act, again, by global grassroots campaigns coordinated by NGOs, funded and supported by everyday citizens, who took the initiative to do something about it.

In 1999, after we did not take the necessary security precautions during the UN elections, which led to further massacres, turmoil and the destruction of 80 per cent of Timor-Leste's infrastructure, finally our government did the right thing and sent in peacekeepers: Australian men and women who worked tirelessly and saw firsthand what will be required to lift this young nation up from its knees. However, at the next opportunity our government was given to help out—to strengthen ties with the Timorese people and their government—it absolutely screwed them over. On their day of independence, 20 May 2002, a day we should have been proud to have helped them achieve, we made them sign a treaty that stacks the odds in our favour in the Joint Petroleum Development Area. Senators may object and claim that they receive 90 per cent of the revenue and we receive only 10 per cent. That is a fact, but here are some others. Fact: the Timorese government paid 90 per cent of the cost of development and maintenance of the JPDA facilities. Fact: if our maritime borders were drawn according to the median line, we would not have any claim to the JPDA. Fact: when an Australian vessel docks against the JPDA platform it is considered clean; when a Timorese vessel does, it is considered dirty. Fact: the pipeline from the JPDA goes to Darwin, not Timor-Leste.

I could go on, but I think it is important that I pay further tribute to the thousands of Australian soldiers, men and women, who have served in Timor-Leste to help build up this nation in order for a lasting friendship to develop and to benefit the region, to increase regional stability. It is also fitting to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of Australians who have gone to Timor-Leste to help them with their capacity building, volunteering in theirs schools, their clinics or within their government.

The CMATS agreement is another area of concern. At the moment, it would seem that it is going nowhere and that, should it be left much longer, it will be ripped up. This area is on their side of the median line. If we were smart, we would give in to their requests and have a pipeline go to Timor-Leste. If we were ethical, we would renegotiate the boundary and make a fresh start in what should always have been honest and friendly relations with our young democratic neighbour—a country where the people look up to us for transparency and fairness. Little do they know.

During my time in Timor-Leste I met a number of senior government ministers as well as the President. They know their stuff, and they are getting the right advice. At the beginning of one very important meeting this particular senior minister stated, 'We are at a turning point in relations with Australia.' During my meeting with the President he informed me that Timor-Leste is off the security council's agenda. It is my opinion that this further highlights that Timor-Leste is capable of standing on its own two feet, but it seems that Australia is holding it back by holding its potential oil revenues from the Sunrise fields to ransom. We must stop being childish about this. We must acknowledge that other countries within our region have natural resources of their own and that we should not simply bully them into sharing them with us just because we are much larger. Good relations with Timor-Leste should be more important to us than their oil. In 2011, the Timorese government rejected the Chinese government's request to build a spy base in Timor-Leste. How long will they continue to act in our interest with these sorts of decisions? And how long will it be before they may need peacekeepers again, possibly? And will they call on Australia or China?

Then we go on to West Papua. What we are doing here today in West Papua is clearly an act of complicity in the crimes committed against the West Papuan people. We give hundreds of millions of dollars to the Indonesian government to support their madrasas—their schools. We give Hercules C130s to them for minimal cost and we turn a blind eye to the atrocities being conducted on our doorstep. In effect, we supply the means and the money for the children of West Papua to be forcibly indoctrinated into the Islamic faith against the will of their parents. Only a few years ago our government rightly apologised for the mistakes that led to the Stolen Generations. How long will it be before our government apologises for its complicity in the stolen generations of the West Papuan people?

Senator Carr, our foreign aid is assisting the Indonesian military in its relentless oppression of the West Papuan people. On Thursday I will have some questions for you to answer, and I do not want to hear the usual cowardly and deceptive response about not answering questions on foreign affairs in the Senate, or of simply denying that West Papua even exists. I and the Australian people expect answers. The shame being brought on this nation as a result of successive governments turning a blind eye to the horrors being done with your blessing is disgraceful. Neither I nor the Democratic Labor Party will take a step back from our position. To do so would be accept complicity to genocide.