Senator BROWN (12:23 PM) —It is not satisfactory for the minister to say nothing in response to an important question like that. We have been asked about it. The East Timorese groups are asking about it. It is going to be a further source of aggravation for East Timor down the years that they have no say in the administration of this area. They are effectively outvoted two to one by this unitisation agreement, which puts two Australians in the saddle and leaves the East Timorese as helpless participants in the administration of what they see as their territory. I remind the committee of the words of one East Timorese group which said, `This leaves Australia occupying East Timorese territory.' They are very strong words but that is how it is being perceived by analysts in Dili, and you can see why. Under this agreement, Australia will have administrative control of a large and important resource that the East Timorese quite justifiably see as theirs. You can see why that has extended right up to the Prime Minister, who is now backing off from this agreement. I remind the government that the agreement has yet to be ratified in the East Timorese parliament. There is something of a focus coming on to the process there. No doubt the bullying by the Australian government will continue and no doubt the blackmail that is involved in saying `if you don't proceed with this then you will not get any revenues at all' will continue. That is just not satisfactory.

Senator Abetz —Mr Temporary Chairman, I raise a point of order. Senator Brown on a previous occasion was required to leave the chamber for refusing to withdraw the word `blackmail'. In the context of this debate he is accusing the government of engaging in blackmail. I do not know whether he wants to make a martyr of himself again but I invite him to withdraw what is a very offensive term as it applies to the government and our negotiations with East Timor.

Senator BROWN —On the point of order, Senator Abetz is quite wrong. I was asked to leave when I applied that term to the Prime Minister on a previous occasion. I have not done that on this occasion. But blackmail is blackmail. I have used it in a different context and it is appropriate language.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Sandy Macdonald)—On the point of order, it may not be an appropriate word, Senator Brown, but, in view of the fact that you are not using it in reference to a particular person—I do ask you to temper your language—you do not need to withdraw it.

Senator BROWN —I can understand why the minister cavils at the term. I presume the minister is going to remain out of the debate on my other question, but I am going to ask it anyway. Article 13 of this agreement is about abandonment and the prospect that the joint venturers, including Woodside, will abandon the project. I want to know this from the minister: in that situation, who pays? We in Tasmania, as the minister will know, have a sorry history of major mining organisations removing themselves when the profit days are ended and leaving the clean-up to the public purse. It is not going to be good enough for Australia to say, 20 or 30 years hence, `We will readjust the boundaries now and give East Timor back its sea because it can bear the cost of the clean-up.' What is the arrangement for ensuring that Woodside et al pay the costs of any environmental or other damage done as a result of the project? What is, and who will take, the cost if the project is abandoned?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN —The question is that the bill stand as printed. You do not have the call, Senator Brown.