East Timor has had to wage a long struggle for its resources.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has called on the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to investigate the role of intelligence services in the bugging of East Timor's cabinet rooms while the two nations were negotiating a deal on accessing offshore oil deposits. Wilkie has the support of Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim and South Australian Senators Tim Storer and Rex Patrick.
Last month, Wilkie used parliamentary privilege to reveal the Commonwealth had charged Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery and a former spy known as “Witness K” for divulging information about the operation. But he said senior government officials were the “real criminals — the people who ordered the illegal bugging”.