David Curry – Relatives of the Balibo Five have only just received formal government correspondence on the repatriation of the remains of the slain Australian journalists, despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's promise before the 2007 federal election to pursue the matter.

Shirley Shackleton, whose husband Greg Shackleton was among the five journalists killed when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, slammed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for being slow to act.

"We finally got letters this week, but this has gone on for two years since they came into power. How would they know [what we want]? The never asked us," she told The Canberra Times.

Ms Shackleton called on Mr Rudd to be "to be the prime minister we elected" by helping to repatriate the remains. She said one of the last things her husband had told her was that, if he was jailed, to "get me out".

"He said to me, 'If I get put into a jail, Shirl, do everything to get me out sell the house'. That's been on my mind for 34 years: 'Get me out.' I believe that getting him out means he doesn't want to be in Indonesia either."

The letters from the department had stated that until the relatives of the dead journalists agreed what should happen to the remains, the department was unable to act.

The issue has come to a head sparked by the release of Robert Connolly's new film Balibo, which premiered in Melbourne last night.

The film opened nearly two years after NSW deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch found the Balibo Five were deliberately killed by Indonesian troops to cover up the invasion.