SWINDLE: Australia, East Timor and the Art of the Steal

SWINDLE shows how Australia’s “national interest” is used to cover up crimes against humanity and provide cover for corruption. As the Australian-led peace-keeping force known as INTERFET enters East Timor in September 1999, another story is unfolding, more complex, dramatic and sinister than this ‘heroic liberation’ might seem; SWINDLE explains why East Timor was the site of so much human rights abuse over 24 years and how Australia placed the theft of another nation’s oil and gas above its own declared Values. SWINDLE sets the record straight so we may learn from East Timor’s dark history something about ourselves, our governments and our democracy.

Australia is supposedly a democratic state but when it comes to ‘national Interest’ we are ruled by an executive – an unelected, unaccountable few who stand above parliamentary politics, whose close ties to the fossil fuel industry are corrupting Australia’s democracy. SWINDLE explores this secretive arrangement through the prosecutions of an ASIS spy and his lawyer who blew the whistle on an epic swindle that stole oil and gas from Timor-Leste, the poorest nation in SE Asia.

East Timor has touched the lives of many Australians be they journalists, activists, church and aid groups, UN volunteers, Federal Police, Defence forces and politicians. But many of us still feel uncomfortable about what happened in that tiny half-island just an hour’s flight from Darwin: a blatant and bloody invasion; a genocide second only to the holocaust; a violation of sovereign rights by a mendacious fossil fuel industry; a spy operation exposed by the spy who did it; the prosecutions of the spy and his lawyer which destroy their careers – these things are troubling to those who know about them. SWINDLE hopes to increase the circle of those who know.

SWINDLE is informed by interviews with Timor’s political elite, long-time Timor watchers, ex-intelligence officers and others whose expert knowledge is applied to a story that begs to be told. Eyewitnesses to history such as journalists and activists speak freely to tell a story that is both an investigation and an emotional ride. Partnerships informing and supporting the narrative include the Australia East Timor Association, East Timor Action Network (US), Friends of Timor Leste, TL Maritime Boundary Office (Dili), Timor Sea Justice Campaign and Australian trade unions (CFMEU, Transport Workers, Nurses, Teachers and Maritime Unions). All these stakeholders have a dog in this fight for the truth. SWINDLE cuts across class and political lines. There is a depth of audience for SWINDLE that is unusual in a political documentary.

Call to Action #1: Write to the Attorney General of Australia demanding an investigation with all the powers of a Royal Commission into the prosecutions of ASIS agent, Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery.
Call to Action #2: Sign the petition that calls for the redacted parts of Bernard Collaery’s book OIL UNDER TROUBLED WATERS to be published in full.
Call to Action #3. Donate to initiatives to alleviate PTSD for Veterans of Timor’s guerrilla army, Falintil, the Australian-led intervention force Interfet, Australian Federal Police, journalists who covered the story – all are welcome. Alleviating poverty is a similar call to action. Still one of the poorest countries in Asia, there are many programs and people lining up to help Timor-Leste.