On 23 June, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's last day as prime minister, he hosted a lunch in Parliament House Canberra with East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta. At about 2pm he met with Nora Kenneally, whom I think became the very last ordinary Australian citizen to meet with him as PM.
Nora is the widow of Paddy Kenneally, one of the most outstanding veterans from Australia's Timor campaign during the Second World War. From the end of the war until his death at the age of 93, Kenneally made it his business to remind people of the simple fact Australians owed the Timorese people a great deal — that he and his mates owed their lives to them.
Prior to the lunch Rudd held a press conference with President Ramos Horta, who was visiting Australia for his first state visit as president. At the press conference Rudd announced a total of five 'dedicated' scholarships for East Timorese students in recognition of the Timorese who 'showed solidarity' with Australia's Sparrow Force during the Second World War.
'Showed solidarity' was Rudd-speak for the hundreds of Timorese and Portuguese men and boys who had served side by side with Australia's guerilla fighters, enabling them to stage an amazing behind-enemy-lines commando campaign throughout 1942. The campaign, involving the first Australians trained as special forces commandos, tied up several thousand Japanese troops while the battle for New Guinea was underway.
Rudd was responding to a grassroots campaign calling for formal recognition and compensation for this legendary war-time assistance. But the announcement seemed a token gesture — it was simply an allocation from the existing Australia Awards scholarship program.
And it all seemed very rushed and last minute; the scholarships weren't even given a name, and Rudd didn't even make a speech during the official lunch at Parliament House.
Activist Josephite nun Sister Susan Connelly has gathered 24,000 petitions in support of an honorary AC for the people of Timor. The initiative was rejected by Rudd. Tony Abbott says should he win office he will revisit this proposal and consider any other worthwhile initiative.
While Australia has made a significant contribution to the country over the past decade, particularly with two military interventions, more could be done in a targeted way to show that Australia is true to the words contained in a leaflet dropped over Timor during the war: 'Your Friends Do Not Forget You'.
Australians clearly forgot this promise in