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Issue No. 135 | 10 May 2002 |
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The Costs of War
Interview: Squaring Off Industrial: Heroes Betrayed History: At The Coalface International: Wobblies With Chinese Characters? Politics: Dancing with Trotsky Economics: You Are What You Eat Poetry: Alexander's Bragtime Band Satire: Stott Despoja Celebrates Engagement With Minor Party Review: Painting Paradise
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch Week in Review Tool Shed
 Heaps and Heaps of Hate MailNo ChoiceWho Rules Australia?No Wrap for Song Comp Abbott's Contempt
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News East Timorese MPs oppose Timor Sea ArrangementBy HT Lee
They want to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate all aspects of the draft agreement. On 5 July 2001 Australia and East Timor signed a one-page Memorandum of Association stating that the Timor Sea Arrangement (TSA)--negotiated over two years--would be appropriate for adoption by a future parliament of East Timor as an agreement between the countries. Australia is pressurising the East Timorese leadership to ratify that arrangement and thence convert it into a treaty by or immediately after independence on 20 May. A sticking point appears to be Australia's insistence that Annex E of the TSA which clearly defines that only 20% of Greater Sunrise falls within the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) must be accepted before the agreement can be signed. The remaining 80% of Greater Sunrise is in what is deemed to be Australian territorial waters--that is within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) adjacent to the JPDA and therefore is not subjected to any sharing of the revenue--East Timor is entitled to a 90:10 split under the TSA. Greater Sunrise is the biggest of the three oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea. It has a gas reserve of 300 million barrels of condensate and 177 million tonnes of LNG, returning an estimated tax revenue expressed in cumulative dollars of the day of US$36 billion. It is expected to begin production from 2008 to 2050. If the TSA is ratified East Timor is only entitled to 18% of the $US36 billion. Speaking from Dili, Eusebio Guterres, an opposition assemble member from Partido Democr�tico (PD) said: 'Australian parliaments have parliamentary committees set up to investigate matters of importance to the nation. Why shouldn't we also have that?' Eusebio said the support to delay the signing of the TSA is coming not just from opposition assembly members but also from the ruling party Fretelin itself--according to him at least four members of Fretelin are opposed to signing the TSA as it stands. However, there appears to be a whispering campaign to make the assembly members and the East Timorese believe that as soon as the TSA is signed, the money from the oil and gas revenue would immediately flow into East Timor. The fact of the matter is Bayu-Undan with an estimated tax revenue in cumulative dollars of the day of US$12 over 30 years, will not began production until 2005--under the TSA the revenue split is 90:10 in favour of East Timor. On the other hand the oil field of Laminaria/Corralina which has already began production and had returned a revenue of US$650 to Australia is not in the JPDA and therefore if the TSA is ratified, will not return any revenue to East Timor. Eusebio is opposed to the secrecy of the whole negotiations--only a handful of people, behind closed doors, were involved--most of them foreign UN advisers to Chief Minister Alkatiri and Foreign Minister Horta. 'We must have open democracy,' Eusebio said, 'Parliament must not be used as a rubber stamp. For democracy to work, important national matters must no be discussed behind closed doors and decided by a few people. All MPs must be fully briefed and understand the issue before they vote on it. That is parliamentary democracy.' As the internationl media gathers in Dili for the independence celebration on 20 May Eusebio and his colleagues are planning to hold a series of press conferences to highlight the matter. They want to put into practice open parliamentary democracy. They want the ratification of the TSA delayed for six months while the parliamentary committee investigates the matter not under closed doors, but as a open committee so as to enable everyone to fully understood the issues involved. We must not try to frustrate their wishes--we must allow them and support them to set up the parliamentary committee. And at the end of the day, if they decide to accept the TSA as it stands--that is their business. After all, that is democracy, and they would have been given the opportunity to participate in it.
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