Page 2173 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 June 2005
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paramount concern to us. The paramount concern of the Australian government is the Australian people.
What have we done since then? We have provided $400 million in official development assistance since 1999. We have included support for multilateral trust funds. We have given assistance in areas of government, education, health, water supply, sanitation and rural development as well as some budget support. We talk with them on a regular basis and we look at how we can assist them. The government has recently undertaken to provide around $40 million in assistance annually over the next three years.
Australia is one of Timor-Leste’s largest donors of development assistance and will continue to be so. So do not say that we do not support Timor because that is not true. Do not twist the words. For goodness sake, please do not ever say that the Australian government should abandon the responsibility for which it was elected, which is to represent the people of Australia. That is like us passing a motion saying that we should oppose something that is going on in Victoria or we should support the Queensland government in their role of doing something against an ACT company.
Let’s face it: we are elected to represent our jurisdictions. Ultimately the federal government is here to represent the people of Australia. I ask Mr Gentleman to explain why he thinks that we should give somebody else’s concern paramount consideration in our negotiations. I think we are all concerned to ensure that Timor-Leste gets off to a good start. I think we are all concerned to ensure that they get the funding that they deserve. But let us look at some of the things that are being said.
I believe that the recent advertisements that have been spoken about are misleading. I am told that the claim that Australia has stolen $2 billion from East Timor is false and disingenuous because Australia has thus far received only about $15 million in revenue from the areas that are still under negotiation. It is beyond me how anyone can say that we have already stolen $2 billion when all we have received is $15 million across something that is still being negotiated. We all get excited about advertising campaigns, but I am told that the amount is $15 million, not $2 billion.
There are some interesting things here. The Timor Sea treaty already gives East Timor 90 per cent of the production from the joint petroleum development area. That is far more generous than the old arrangements in the former Timor Gap treaty with Indonesia, where there was a 50:50 split. So let us tell the full sorry here, not pick out bits and pluck heartstrings. We all have sympathy for Timor, but let us tell the full story.
The development of resources in the Bayu-Undan field is proceeding and Timor is getting significant benefit from it already. It is estimated that East Timor will receive $14½ billion in revenue over the 20-year life of that field; that is, about $2 million a day will go to Timor. If you look at these agreements you will find that the Greater Sunrise IUA legislation—Mr Gentleman might enlighten us on this—was passed in the Australian parliament on 29 March 2004. It would be interesting to know how the Labor Party voted in that case.
Mr Speaker, I think we need to look at the history of this matter. Who was in office in 1975 when Timor was annexed by Indonesia? It was a matter of a nod and a wink and saying, “It will be okay. We understand what our northern neighbour is doing.” The
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