George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Madigan for his question and I thank him for the courtesy of giving me advance notice of his question. I begin by pointing out to Senator Madigan that the treaty that is the subject of proceedings commencing today in The Hague is not the Timor Sea treaty. The Timor Sea treaty is strongly supported by the governments of both Australia and Timor-Leste. The treaty that is the subject of proceedings in The Hague is a subsequent treaty—the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea—and it is that separate treaty which the government of Timor-Leste criticises.

The notice of arbitration and the reference to the arbitral tribunal in The Hague was filed by the government of Timor-Leste on 23 April this year but, prior to that, on 18 February this year officials of the Australian government met with officials of the government of Timor-Leste in Bangkok in order to discuss this dispute. In fact, the Timor Sea treaty, which does provide a dispute resolution mechanism which has been adopted by the CMATS treaty, actually provides for prior consultation as a condition precedent to invoking the arbitration procedure. One of the grounds on which Australia disputes the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal in The Hague is that we contend that the government of Timor-Leste has not sufficiently engaged in or exhausted the prior consultation machinery before referring the matter to arbitration.