Australia–Indonesia Relations, 1974–83

East Timor in Australia-Indonesia Relations in the 70s and 80s

Between 1975 and 1983, Indonesia's handling of the integration of East Timor caused a decline in Australia–Indonesia relations. This article argues that Australian foreign policy to isolate East Timor from its bilateral relationship with Indonesia failed because it conflicted with the activities of interested Australians who exposed Indonesia's military campaigns in East Timor.

Activists created a powerful counter‐narrative about the conflict that mobilised public opposition to the official policy, and complicated Australia's co‐operative policies towards Indonesia. To demonstrate the challenge of public opinion to Australian foreign policy, the article examines a brief prepared by the First Assistant Secretary at the Department of Defence, William Beale Pritchett in October 1975, which warned that Indonesia's integration of East Timor would involve “force on a scale that could not be hidden from the Australian public eye”.

Applying Pritchett's brief to three case studies — Balibo (October 1975), invasion and occupation (1975–76), and humanitarian crises (1977–82) — the article demonstrates the conflict between public and official policy to illustrate why the official Australian policy failed, and how the East Timor issue had become inseparable from Australia–Indonesia relations by 1983.

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