Janet Fife-Yeomans – Former prime minister Gough Whitlam should be forced to finally tell the truth about what his government knew of the fate of five young Australians killed in East Timor, an inquest heard yesterday.

At least one secret intelligence report that the five journalists were executed on the orders of Indonesian generals would have crossed his desk, solicitor Rodney Lewis said.

He said the inference was that Mr Whitlam would have seen any earlier message ordering their execution and a third message telling Indonesian soldiers in Balibo what to do with their bodies. Mr Lewis urged Deputy NSW Coroner Dorelle Pinch to subpoena Mr Whitlam to the inquest on one of the five journalists, Brian Peters.

Channel 9's cameraman Mr Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29, and Channel 7's reporter Greg Shackleton, 29, cameraman Gary Cunningham, 27, and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21, died at Balibo on October 16, 1975.

The official line has been that they were caught in crossfire while covering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. But a secret Indonesian radio intercept, which came to light this year (as revealed in last Saturday's Herald Sun), indicated they were Indonesian targets.

The intercept was picked up by the top-secret Defence Signals Directorate near Darwin on the day of the deaths.

"The prime minister is at the apex of government and there is a reasonable inference that this highly sensitive material would have come to rest on his desk at some point, and we say that happened before (the deaths)," Mr Lewis said.

He told the court the government's failure to warn the journalists of the danger they were in or to take any action should be central to the inquest.

After three decades of rumours, claim and counter-claim, this was the opportunity to settle the matter once and for all, Mr Lewis said.

He asked Ms Pinch to subpoena Mr Whitlam; his defence minister, Bill Morrison; the then head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, John Menadue; and the head of Foreign Affairs, Alan Renouf. "The people whose duty it was to act or warn happen to be the people at the top of the Commonwealth government," Mr Lewis said.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Naomi Sharp, opposed the application, saying it could not be taken as a given that Australia had an obligation to secure the journalists' safety.

"How is the duty of the government to protect its intelligence sources to be weighed against the protection of the journalists?" Ms Sharp said. Ms Pinch will give her decision today.