Canberra – It may have become a big deal later, but East Timor did not figure prominently in the deliberations of the Whitlam government in its final year.
Cabinet documents made public today for the first time show not one submission was made to Cabinet specifically relating to East Timor. Further, the key events relating to the former Portuguese colony occurred at the end of the year when Whitlam and his ministers had other matters on their minds.
On October 16, 1975, five Australian journalists were murdered at Balibo. The same day, the Opposition in the Senate voted to defer supply, launching the political crisis that ended with Whitlam's dismissal on November 11.
Indonesia invaded East Timor on Sunday, December 7. Six days later, Whitlam was defeated at the general election which handed the whole unholy mess to incoming prime minister Malcolm Fraser.
Asked about East Timor at the media conference for the National Archives of Australia release of the 1975 cabinet documents, Whitlam referred to his 1997 book Abiding Interest.
Reading an extract, he said he encountered journalist Greg Shackleton before his ill-fated trip to East Timor and warned him there was no way the Australian government could protect him or his colleagues.
"It is a Portuguese colony and the Portuguese government ought to accept responsibility instead of just clearing out and dropping their bundle," he said. "We have supported all along the idea of self determination. The Portuguese ought to help in that process."
In his book The Whitlam Government 1972 -1975 he said his government could easily have exploited East Timor and the death of the newsmen as a great patriotic issue.
"I say this quite seriously, because nothing would have been easier than for us to have exposed the irresponsibility of a senate denying supply to a government on the eve of a state of emergency and a possible conflict with our principal neighbour," he said.
Whitlam certainly expressed a desire for East Timorese self-determination, manifested in a communique following his meeting with Indonesian President Suharto in April 1975.
But at best the messages were mixed with Whitlam previously stating an independent East Timor was non-viable and that in many ways it was part of the Indonesian world.
At that time East Timor was just one of a substantial number of struggling ex-colonies seeking to make their way in an uncertain world. Australia had already made a substantial investment in PNG which gained independence in September 1975.
Australia with Malcolm Fraser as prime minister condemned the Indonesian takeover in a series of annual votes at the United Nations. However it was Australia which became the first country to officially recognise East Timor's incorporation in 1979.
The issue of Labor culpability or otherwise in Indonesia's takeover of East Timor was canvassed in great detail in 1999 in the leadup to the independence ballot, Australia's subsequent leadership of the INTERFET operation.
In February 1999, the Labor foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton slammed both Labor and the Coalition, declaring it had been a long and tragic history that reflected little credit on either side of mainstream Australian politics over the previous quarter century.
That sparked a blazing row involving Whitlam and former labor foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans.
In evidence before a parliamentary committee in December 1999, Whitlam released a letter he sent to President Suharto in February 1975 promoting self-determination through a Portuguese proposal to retain responsibility for East Timor for up to eight years, leading to a transitional government and free elections.
To clear the decks, the government agreed to an expedited release of all foreign affairs documents and cables relating to Australia, Indonesia and East Timor for the period.
Published in 2000, they revealed that Australian officials knew well in advance of Indonesia's invasion plans by way of an established back-channel.
In another cable, Australian ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott warned the government against publicly denouncing Indonesia's invasion of East Timor because it risked exposing the secret information flow.
The documents also showed a meeting between Mr Whitlam and President Suharto in 1974 may have been the catalyst for the takeover.
At that meeting, Mr Whitlam said he supported Indonesia's annexation of East Timor as long as it was not violent.
A month later, Australian officials were told by Indonesia military officials that Mr Whitlam's comments had helped them crystallise their own ideas on East Timor.