Mateship

When we celebrate ANZAC day - a day on which among other wartime actions, we should recall the support given to Australia soldiers during World Ware II by the people of East Timor, often with severe consequences to their own safety. We should also recall, with less pride, the support given by the Australian Government to the Indonesian Government in the lead up to their invasion of East Timor in 1975, and the influences this support has had on the favourable outcome of the negotiations to "Establish Certain Seabed Boundaries" between Australia and East Timor in 1971/72.

The current situation where the Australian Government receives far more revenue from the Laminaria-Corallina oil field than we provide in aid programs to East Timor, makes any claim of generosity on our part a hollow travesty of the truth. The projected benefits to Australia from the yet to be developed fields, such as the Greater Sunrise field, dwarf the current unjust advantage we have "negotiated" for ourselves. The current issuing of exploration licences by Australia in territory that is closer to East Timor than Australia, calls into question any pretence of sincerity on our part in the current negotiations.

This text used with the permission of Phil Glendenning
Photos courtesy of Paul Jacobs from Aquinas College