The Wire

We heard a lot about Ian Melrose last year around Anzac day – he was the mysterious millionaire who commissioned a series of television ads which featured old diggers being strongly critical of the Australian government taking too much oil revenue from East Timor. He’s at it again – a new series of ads hit the screen in about three weeks time but this time the cause is independence for West Papua. In the lead up to the release of the new campaign Ian Melrose is part of a roadshow going around the country raising public awareness of how West Papua came to be under Indonesian control in the first place. The key incident which the ads will highlight was the 1969 referendum which led to Indonesia taking control.