Shakedown: Australia’s grab for Timor oil

In 2000 one of the poorest nations on earth began negotiations with Australia over rights to the lucrative oil and gas resources of the Timor Sea. With the revenue from the oil and gas fields, the young democracy of East Timor would have a chance to secure its economic future. If Australia would allow it.

In an ironic twist of fate, East Timor found that Australia, the country which had delivered freedom to the Timorese by intervening against Indonesia’s bloody attacks in 1999, was now trying to deny it a fair share of the profits.

This is the inside story of Australia’s attempts to bully East Timor out of a promising future in the Timor Sea oil dispute. Paul Cleary, a former East Timor government adviser, gives a gripping insider’s account of the six years of bruising negotiations between Australia and East Timor that followed the independence ballot. He saw how the Timorese pulled off one of the great David and Goliath feats of the region but then were unable to lay the foundations for a peaceful future.

In this compelling insight into Australia’s international operations, Cleary exposes the heroes and villains who emerged in a one-hundred-billion-dollar shakedown.