The former director of the Australian War Memorial, Brendan Nelson, offered in 2019 to censor nine chapters from the official history of Australia’s operations in Timor-Leste and seal them for 30 years, according to a claim made in correspondence from the then head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat).
But within weeks Nelson decided to actively oppose the move, the documents released under freedom of information laws suggest, and the chapters were included when the volume was eventually published.
The documents confirm Dfat wanted the first volume of the official history on Australian operations in Timor-Leste to omit details that might have “a negative impact on vital relationships”. They show it urged the author, the official historian and University of NSW Prof Craig Stockings, to tone down overly “candid” assessments of other countries’ peacekeeping contributions and remove an “unflattering” portrayal of a senior British officer.
After a process that federal cabinet decreed should take no more than six months but which lasted more than two years, the volume was published in December 2022 under its original title, Born of Fire and Ash, which Dfat had also tried to change. A formal launch was abruptly cancelled without explanation, after invitations were sent out.
The documents were obtained by the former independent senator Rex Patrick after a five-year FoI battle.
The documents show that Dfat pressed both the War Memorial and Stockings in 2019 to amend his unpublished manuscript to adjust narratives and avoid upsetting important allies.
They also contain the claim that a highly controversial – and ultimately failed – proposal to axe the first nine chapters and substitute potentially just two truncated replacements came from Nelson rather than from Dfat.
As War Memorial director in 2019, Nelson had stewardship of the official history project.
The documents reveal an exchange of letters between Nelson and the then department secretary, Frances Adamson, in which she initially proposed to Stockings that the chapters should be cut, was rebuffed by Nelson, but then expressed surprise to him, citing an earlier conversation between them in which she said she had been “quite taken with your suggestion of the first nine chapters being compressed into two”.
The letters
The documents show Nelson and Adamson had a conversation on 18 September 2019 in which she briefed him on Dfat’s progress in reviewing Stockings’ manuscript, a mandated vetting process involving relevant departments and agencies to ensure nothing was published that could damage national security or significantly harm Australia or individuals.
On 30 September, Adamson wrote directly to Stockings, suggesting his manuscript focused “inordinately” on the events leading up to the 1999 Timorese independence vote, the 25th anniversary of which was marked in Dili on Friday.
She noted that an “honest history” of Australia’s peacekeeping role in Timor would touch “raw nerves”. Other documents in the FoI release suggest Dfat wanted to downplay Indonesia’s role in seeking to suppress the Timorese independence movement.
In the letter Adamson proposed compressing the first nine chapters – which covered the lead-up period – into two, arguing it was “not immediately relevant” to documenting the military history of the peacekeeping force and its successor.
“That should vastly reduce the negative impact on vital relationships and reduce the grounds for Dfat’s … concerns,” her letter said.
Only days later, on 3 October, Nelson replied to Adamson on Stockings’ behalf, strenuously opposing the proposal to compress the nine chapters.
“The Memorial cannot remove or truncate the first nine chapters of the draft manuscript into one or two,” Nelson wrote. “This is simply not possible in terms of precedent, historical methodology and the intelligibility of events. [The peacekeeping mission] makes no sense at all without due consideration and understanding of events that preceded it.”
Nelson warned that such a move would undermine the reputation of Stockings and the War Memorial and the credibility of all Australia’s official histories.
“In this context, truncating the first nine chapters of the manuscript in the wholesale manner suggested may be perceived by some to have been the product of censorship,” Nelson wrote.
But a month later, on 1 November, Adamson replied expressing surprise and claiming that the proposal to cut the chapters had come from Nelson himself.
“I have to admit to a degree of surprise at its content and tone,” Adamson wrote of the letter from Nelson.
“I was quite taken with your suggestion of the first nine chapters being compressed into two, with the original nine being ‘tidied up’ to address matters of concern and these then being held from release for a further 30 years.”
“Whether this was viable or not, it was clear to me that you were mindful of the issues we were focused upon and open to working out a practical solution.”
Nelson, a former Liberal party leader and now the president of Boeing International, declined to comment on the documents. Adamson, now the governor of South Australia, said via a spokesperson this week the contemporaneous record “speaks for itself”.
‘Too candid’
On 16 October, between Nelson’s letter and Adamson’s reply, a Dfat official from the Indonesia branch wrote a further letter to Stockings lamenting that one of his later chapters “takes a ‘glass half-empty’ view” and was “too candid in expressing disappointment at the contributions of other governments”. He objected to an “unflattering” and “unsympathetic” portrayal of a senior British officer.
“It may well be spot on but we wonder whose interests are served by laying it out in that way,” he wrote, noting that British readers might take the view that the Australians were “out of their depth and were engaging in Pom-bashing”.
His letter said a reference to “eavesdropping equipment” was unsupported by evidence, was just “rehashing” speculation and was “unhelpful” and asked that references to “TNI militia” be reduced to just “militia”, removing mention of Indonesia’s armed forces.
Vetting of the second volume of the history – which covers the period in which Australia bugged Timor-Leste’s cabinet room during Timor Gap negotiations – is still not resolved after almost three years, with Dfat again expressing concerns. Stockings declined to comment on either the current process or the FoI documents this week.
UNSW Prof Clinton Fernandes, who was principal intelligence analyst on the Australian Defence Force’s East Timor desk in 1999, criticised what he said were Dfat’s attempts to remove uncomfortable truths.
“That mentality that ‘we will decide what the public needs to know’ is reminiscent of less democratic regimes,” Fernandes said.
He paid tribute to Stockings’ work.
“It would have been easy to have given in and just written a whole book full of larrikin stories about larrikin diggers and ruminate on our national character – bronzed Anzacs, all of that stuff,” Fernandes said. “He has taken his task as an official historian seriously and a lesser person would easily have not only gone along with it, but then justified the action.”
Patrick said the War Memorial and Dfat should have released the documents from the start.
“They’re not sensitive, they’re only embarrassing and that’s no justification for five years of secrecy,” Patrick said. “I sought these documents after finding out that there was tension between the War Memorial and Dfat and out of a fear that our official history would be censored. Unless you know the full truth, you cannot learn from history.”
Dfat said in a statement government agencies continued to support the official histories project.
“While based on official documents, the views portrayed in the volumes are the views of the author, not the Australian government,” the statement said.
“… Government agencies and the project conducted extensive negotiations in good faith to reach an agreed declassified text, and it was appropriate agencies took the time they needed to get it right. Australia has strong defence partnerships with Indonesia and Timor-Leste, which we are committed to deepening further.”
