Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on developments regarding the allocation of natural resources between Australia and East Timor?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. He has shown a lot of interest in this issue, and he has been a lot of help, too, to the Australian government in making this possible. I know that the people of Darwin appreciate the excellent work that he has done, or they should do. It is called the Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea. That treaty was signed by me and Jose Ramos-Horta, the East Timorese foreign minister, on 12 January in Sydney in the presence of the Prime Minister of Australia and the Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri.

This is a good agreement for Australia, and this is a good agreement for East Timor. With the 2003 International Unitisation Agreement, this creates a legal and fiscal regime which will underpin the development of the Greater Sunrise gas and oil field. It splits the upstream revenue derived from Greater Sunrise equally between Australia and East Timor, raising East Timor’s share of the revenues from 18 per cent to 50 per cent, which could lead to additional revenue of up to $5 billion for East Timor over the life of the project. From Australia’s point of view, it suspends maritime claims in the Timor Sea for 50 years.

I think this very clearly reflects a commitment by Australia to promote the development and economic prosperity of one of our closest neighbours, but it also supports Australia’s interests. As Prime Minister Alkatiri said at the signing ceremony, ‘The agreement is a very positive agreement for East Timor,’ and of course I say the agreement is a very positive one for Australia.

At the last election the then member for Werriwa, Mark Latham, said that, if he was elected—and the opposition of course asked the Australian people to elect Mark Latham as the Prime Minister—he would recommence the negotiating process. Labor wanted to unscramble the whole of this process and start all over again. It might not be the most important reason for people re-electing this government at the last election—there may be a range of other issues—but it simply illustrates the point that they made a very wise decision.