East Timor defends gas treaty challenge

East Timor says it has irrefutable evidence that Australia's overseas spy agency broke in to the cabinet room of East Timor's government in Dili nine years ago, during negotiations for a treaty over the Greater Sunrise gas field.

East Timor's Government is seeking to have the treaty declared invalid on the grounds Australia did not act in good faith during the talks.

Australian government ministers past and present have refrained from commenting on the matter.

Reporter: Sara Everingham

Speakers: Bernard Collaery, lawyer, East Timor's legal team; Alexander Downer, formerly Australia's Foreign Minister; Bob Carr, Australia's Foreign Minister

SARA EVERINGHAM: East Timor says it has a strong case in its push to have the treaty on the Greater Sunrise gas field declared invalid.

Lawyer Bernard Collaery is from East Timor's legal team.

BERNARD COLLAERY: The evidence is irrefutable and the Australian authorities are well aware that we're in a position to back that up. And of course we would not be and would not have formed our international litigation team unless we knew where we were.

SARA EVERINGHAM: East Timor argues Australia did not act in good faith during the negotiations on the treaty on Greater Sunrise which known as CMATS. The treaty splits the billions of dollars in revenue from Greater Sunrise field 50-50 between the two countries.

The Timorese government is alleging that in October 2004 at the time the treaty was being negotiated, Australia's overseas spy agency broke in to the cabinet room of East Timor's government in Dili in breach of international treaty conventions.

Bernard Collaery again.

BERNARD COLLAERY: It was cheating and unsophisticated and a new government of a poor country, with an appalling infant mortality rate for some gas that's a miniscule proportion of Australia's own reserves.

There's no national interest espionage in a country that is supposed to observe the rule of law in behaving in this way.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Mr Collaery who's a former ACT attorney-general would not comment on who was involved in the operation. He did point out that ASIS reported to then foreign minister Alexander Downer.

BERNARD COLLAERY: The operation was conducted by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and of course it operated and reported at the relevant times to foreign minister Downer.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Mr Downer would not comment on the allegations.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, not surprisingly, nobody in the Australian Government past or present is going to comment about intelligence matters one way or the other. It's just impossible to get into a discussion like that and I'm certainly not prepared to break that very well-known convention.

SARA EVERINGHAMl: Did this break-in happen? Did you know about it?

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, again, I'm not going to discuss intelligence matters at all. It just is impossible to do that and this is an allegation that the East Timorese have made and naturally enough, in those circumstances, we simply don't respond and never have done and never would.

SARA EVERINGHAM: The current Foreign Minister Bob Carr also says he cannot comment on intelligence matters. He emphasised that the dispute will not damage relations with East Timor.

BOB CARR: Nothing can rupture the bonds between the people of Timor Leste and the people of Australia, but I am bound by convention that says Australian Government ministers don't comment on matters of security, intelligence, espionage, even when what's being said is plain untrue.

SARA EVERINGHAM: But East Timor's government says Australia has breached an agreement to refrain from megaphone diplomacy in the dispute.

Lawyer Bernard Collaery again.

BERNARD COLLAERY: We understood that we wouldn't conduct this issue in public. It concerns us greatly.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Earlier this month the Federal Government issued a press release saying that East Timor had initiated arbitration and was seeking to have the treaty declared invalid on the grounds Australia spied on East Timor during the negotiations. The release also said the allegations were not new.

BERNARD COLLAERY: And the manner in which they made it public was to patronise the East Timor government and refer to long and lengthy rumours of espionage. That wasn't the case. We informed Prime Minister Gillard of the precise, clear details of the break-in to the Timorese cabinet room.

SARA EVERINGHAM: The carve-up of the Greater Sunrise field has been a contentious matter for years. The treaty on revenue sharing was signed by Australia and East Timor in 2006, but the field is yet to be developed because there's been no agreement on how that should be done.

East Timor wants a pipeline built from the Greater Sunrise Field to its south coast for onshore processing. While the developer, Woodside Petroleum, wants the gas processed on a floating platform at sea.

There's also been tension about the clause in the treaty that prevents both countries from making any claims on a maritime boundary for 50 years. If the treaty were declared invalid, the maritime boundary question could open up again.

30 May 2013

radioaustralia.net.au