HAYLEY SORENSEN

“They are very sympathetic and empathetic towards Bernard Collaery and Witness K,” Ms Nelson said.

“They do see them as being supporters of Timor, risking their lives essentially and professional careers to look out for the best interests of Timor and the Timorese people.”

But Australia’s appalling record of mistreatment of our northern neighbour stretches long before the cabinet room was bugged.

Timorese history is punctuated by invasions – the Indonesian invasion of 1975 which led to the bloody 24-year occupation and the Portuguese invasion of the 17th century.

In between was the Australian invasion.

Thousands of Timorese died as a direct result of the decision by Australia to invade then-neutral Portuguese Timor in 1941, drawing it into a war it had no interest in participating in.

And while Australia casts itself as a hero in East Timor’s transition to independence, our leaders did not always support a free Timor.

Documents released in 1999

One of them likes chops; the other hates them but loves snags (which the other one won’t eat); one loves lasagne; the other hates béchamel sauce. On and on it goes.

Clearly this column is not an attempt to denounce my own children. I love them with all my heart. It’s more an act of self-denunciation, as at some point us parents appear to have given away much of the authority that we used to command.

You can see it in the decline of children having parttime jobs, or in how pocket money is no longer necessshow former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam told Indonesia’s president Suharto in 1974 that he backed Indonesia’s annexation of its neighbour. Indonesia invaded the following year, setting off a 24year genocide that resulted in 102,000 conflict-related deaths. While Australia’s role in leading the INTERFET peacekeeping force which helped bring stability after the 1999 referendum is appreciated and never forgotten by the Timorese, it doesn’t wipe away the sins of our past.

An apology, earnestly given for the appalling things Australia’s leaders have done in the name of our “national interest”, would go a long way.

Treating our neighbour with fairness and respect isn’t an act of charity, but an act of justice. If Australia is as concerned as it seems about the prospect of a Chinese-influenced Timor, an apology seems a small price to pay. It’s in our national interest. Hayley Sorensen is columnist and former English editor of arily linked to the performance of tasks.

My grandma was the epitome of Australian working class resourcefulness. She had nine kids. She spent much of her life in public housing but she ran a fastidious home, winning several garden awards and she always put a meal on the table for her kids with the expectation that they would eat it or go hungry.

I wonder what my late grandma and others from her era would make of the “stress” identified in this survey?