Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

During World War II, 60,000 Timorese died assisting Australian soldiers who were fighting in Timor. After they voted for independence in 1999 and after the great job done by INTERFET in supporting the transition, it was reasonable for them to think that we were their friends, but we weren't. The government of the day and those in DFAT at the time were busy in the background trying to steal Timor's oil and gas—Timor's only real source of money to bring their population out of poverty. Here are some of the things we did.

The Australian government withdrew itself from the maritime boundary jurisdictions of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, forcing the issue to be resolved without an independent umpire. During purportedly good-faith negotiations, Australia spied on Timor-Leste to gain advantage in the negotiations. When Timor-Leste found out about the spying, they sought to have the treaty declared invalid on the basis of fraud. The Australian government responded by raiding the offices of Timor-Leste's lawyer, Bernard Collaery. After Timor launched compulsory conciliation under article 289 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Australia lodged six objections, with the Conciliation Commission dismissing all of them. When a replacement treaty was finally agreed to by government, they immediately sought to prosecute whistleblowers Witness K and Bernard Collaery, the heroes that had called out Australia's abhorrent conduct. This morning it was revealed, because of proceedings I initiated in the AAT, that we started the spying on the Timorese, to steal their resources, before they were even independent.

We need to come clean. We need to be open and transparent to restore Timor's trust and international confidence in Australia. We need to stop the prosecutions. With that, I seek leave to table a translation of a vote of confidence in Mr Collaery conducted recently in the Timor-Leste parliament, to show the Senate and the Australian people that Mr Collaery's continued prosecution is a hindrance to the relationship-healing process.