Stockings and the then director of the AWM, Brendan Nelson met with Payne in 2019 to discuss DFAT's handling of the volume. In January 2020 the clearance process resumed using revised arrangements, and the acting director of the AWM informed Senator Rex Patrick that the institution was confident that this approach would prove successful. Patrick expressed concern, however, over the memorial refusing a freedom of information request he had lodged regarding the matter and the possibility that the book may be "doctored". The book was eventually cleared by DFAT after a three year long process. Professor Clinton Fernandes told the ABC that the lengthy clearance process likely resulted from material in the book that demonstrated that the Australian Government opposed East Timorese independence until 1999. DFAT denied this.
