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Subject: East Timor's parliament rejects PM's refugee plan
also Smith explaining asylum hub to Indonesia, Timor's Dilemma, Australia shrugs off Timor refugee snub East Timor rejects PM's refugee plan July 12, 2010 - 9:54PM AAP A rejection by East Timor's parliament of Australia's proposal to establish an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers is not necessarily a reflection of its government's view, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says. East Timor's parliament passed a resolution on Monday to reject the Australian government's proposal to locate a regional processing centre there. But just 34 of the 65 members of East Timor's parliament voted unanimously on the issue. "It's the reflection of the view of the members of parliament assembled, it is not a reflection of the East Timorese government," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Perth. Australian officials had held "productive discussions" in East Timor on Monday, Mr Smith said. "So the East Timorese government's position on this remains unchanged. "I think it is important not to over-interpret the resolution passed by the East Timor parliament. "It is not a reflection of the government of East Timor's decision." Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last week she wanted to set up a regional processing centre and had discussed the matter with East Timor. She drew criticism for the fact she had discussed the issue with East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta but not its Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao before announcing the policy. Ms Gillard said earlier on Monday she wanted to act quickly to establish the centre. "Well, I will be doing this as quickly as possible," the prime minister told reporters in Adelaide. "I'm determined to get it done. I announced it last Tuesday, and I have been determined each day since to get it done." But Ms Gillard said people needed to be realistic. "This will take some time. We will be focused on it," she said. "I'm focused on it now. And there is a dialogue with East Timor now." Ms Gillard declined to answer journalists' questions about the East Timor parliament's resolution as she attended a book launch in Sydney on Monday evening. The news from East Timor will be more fodder for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has continued to attack Ms Gillard's proposal. "The prime minister is lost somewhere in the Timor Sea," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra. "She said that the government had lost its way. It hasn't found its way - it's wandering around the region in search of an offshore processing centre." Mr Abbott called on the federal government to use the Nauru facility built for immigration detainees by the Howard government as part of its so-called Pacific Solution. Labor won't consider Nauru because the tiny Pacific island country hasn't ratified the UN refugee convention. The only country Ms Gillard wouldn't talk to was the one country "apparently willing to host (a centre)", Mr Abbott said. "The one country where Australia actually paid for a centre is the one country Julia Gillard's too proud to talk too." Mr Smith will go to Jakarta later this week to discuss Labor's regional plan and process. He said he would receive a report on the discussions held by Australian officials in East Timor in a few days and would then discuss it with his East Timorese counterpart, Zacarias da Costa. "We are very much at the beginning of the process." --- Smith explaining asylum hub to Indonesia July 12, 2010 - 5:29PM AAP Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has defended his decision to visit Indonesia ahead of East Timor as he explains the government's plans for a regional approach to asylum seekers. Mr Smith will meet with Indonesian officials in Jakarta this week to discuss Labor's plans for a regional processing facility if it wins the coming federal election. The foreign minister said he spoke to his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa on the day the plan was announced and agreed to discuss it further during his visit, which had been scheduled "for some time". "This is a matter we need to consider and discuss in detail and we will," Mr Smith told Sky News on Monday. He defended his decision not to visit East Timor, where the facility may be built, ahead of Indonesia. "We have an agreed process with East Timor," Mr Smith said. "That process, in terms of getting officials together, starts today in Dili." --- http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2010/s2950058.htm ABC Correspondents Report Timor's Dilemma Sara Everingham reported this story on >Sunday, July 11, 2010 08:00:00 ELIZABETH JACKSON: This week the tiny nation of East Timor found itself caught up in the domestic politics of its much larger neighbour. Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her asylum seeker policy and floated the idea of sending asylum seekers to a processing centre in East Timor. The country's top political leaders appear to be considering the idea more out of concern for asylum seekers than any desire to help the Australian Government. But East Timor's leaders have their own domestic politics to consider and that could bring the Australian Government's idea unstuck. Sara Everingham has this report from Dili. SARA EVERINGHAM: The streets have been flooding here in Dili after unseasonal weather brought torrential rain. Eight years since independence East Timor's infrastructure is still developing. This week the people struggled to go about their daily business. Yet Australia, one of the most affluent countries in the world, has placed the East Timorese in the position of helping others when they're still struggling to help themselves. Julia Gillard said she'd had discussions with East Timor's president Jose Ramos-Horta about the possibility of Timor hosting a regional processing centre for asylum seekers. She'd spoken to him only the previous night and her announcement might have been miscalculated and presumptuous. The prime minister Xanana Gusmao has been critical of Australia of late. In a recent speech he said pre-independence Australia had shafted East Timor and post-independence implied Australia has been duplicitous in its attempts to help the fledgling country. The speech was really about his anger over the development of gas in the Timor Sea. His push to get more spin off benefits for his people has been thwarted. His angry rhetoric has been building. And this is all coming from the person with the executive powers to act on any potential agreements with Australia over a regional processing centre. So it's probably not all that helpful that he knew nothing of Gillard's announcement, as he made clear this week. REPORTER: What do you make of Prime Minister Gillard's failure to contact you to discuss her plan? XANANA GUSMAO: What plan? SARA EVERINGHAM: The analyst Hugh White believes the announcement was ill advised. Considering Timorese politicians have difficulty agreeing on much if the only thing they seem to agree on is their lack of love for Australia, Hugh White thinks there's not much chance of Gillard's proposal getting off the ground. Clearly the opposition in government and parliament is mounting. Even East Timor's deputy prime minister Jose Luis Guterres thinks the idea will sink. JOSE LUIS GUTERRES: We have been with so many (inaudible) problems in Timor. We have so many issues that we have to deal with. Then having another- bringing another problem, another issue, to the country, I don't think it's wise for any politician to do it. SARA EVERINGHAM: On Thursday East Timor's parliament condemned Australia's proposal. Despite the opposing voices the top political leaders say they're open to this on humanitarian principles. But these could be based in part on more self-interested motives. East Timor's president Jose Ramos-Horta has also been pushing for Australia to accept Timorese guest workers to fill labour shortages, although he's ruled out doing any deals. In the Australian Paul Cleary writes that Jose Ramos-Horta sees himself and his country as being guided by humanitarian convictions and that playing a role in an international program could afford East Timor a certain status and exposure on a global level. But with these international political gains could come some domestic political losses. On the streets of Dili this week there was little support for the plan. (Man speaks) "How can we accept more people?" this man asks. "We don't even have jobs." "Australia is a big country, it's a rich country", another man says, "They can provide better conditions for asylum seekers than us". SARA EVERINGHAM: The people of Timor appear sympathetic but not yet convinced given the struggles they face. But Jose Ramos-Horta seems to be counting on this sympathy. JOSE RAMOS-HORTA: My personal sentiments are not mine alone. If you ask a Timorese person in the street how he or she look at people who flee violence, extreme poverty, they share the same sentiment as I do. SARA EVERINGHAM: And this sympathy extends as far as providing decent conditions for asylum seekers. JOSE RAMOS-HORTA: They should have freedom to move around in this country. If there are children, children should be able to go to school. If there are some women who need to go to see the doctor in our main hospital in Dili or any other person, they should be able to travel freely. They would be given documents to travel freely within the country. SARA EVERINGHAM: But others are concerned those conditions have not yet been properly delivered to the Timorese. The prime minister Xanana Gusmao's wife Kirsty Sword Gusmao told Fairfax papers this week the Timorese might not welcome their government being distracted from urgent problems such as health and education. She's worried about the ramifications for a country still trying to stand on its own two feet. ELIZABETH JACKSON: Sara Everingham with that report from Dili. ------- Timor rejection not its govt view: Smith By Andrea Hayward CANBERRA, July 12 AAP - A rejection by East Timor's parliament of Australia's proposal to establish an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers is not necessarily a reflection of its government's view, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says. East Timor's parliament passed a resolution on Monday to reject the Australian government's proposal to locate a regional processing centre there. But just 34 of the 65 members of East Timor's parliament voted unanimously on the issue. "It's the reflection of the view of the members of parliament assembled, it is not a reflection of the East Timorese government," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Perth. Australian officials had held "productive discussions" in East Timor on Monday, Mr Smith said. "So the East Timorese government's position on this remains unchanged. "I think it is important not to over-interpret the resolution passed by the East Timor parliament. "It is not a reflection of the government of East Timor's decision." Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last week she wanted to set up a regional processing centre and had discussed the matter with East Timor. She drew criticism for the fact she had discussed the issue with East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta but not its Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao before announcing the policy. Ms Gillard said earlier on Monday she wanted to act quickly to establish the centre. "Well, I will be doing this as quickly as possible," the prime minister told reporters in Adelaide. "I'm determined to get it done. I announced it last Tuesday, and I have been determined each day since to get it done." But Ms Gillard said people needed to be realistic. "This will take some time. We will be focused on it," she said. "I'm focused on it now. And there is a dialogue with East Timor now." Ms Gillard declined to answer journalists' questions about the East Timor parliament's resolution as she attended a book launch in Sydney on Monday evening. The news from East Timor will be more fodder for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has continued to attack Ms Gillard's proposal. "The prime minister is lost somewhere in the Timor Sea," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra. "She said that the government had lost its way. It hasn't found its way - it's wandering around the region in search of an offshore processing centre." Mr Abbott called on the federal government to use the Nauru facility built for immigration detainees by the Howard government as part of its so-called Pacific Solution. Labor won't consider Nauru because the tiny Pacific island country hasn't ratified the UN refugee convention. The only country Ms Gillard wouldn't talk to was the one country "apparently willing to host (a centre)", Mr Abbott said. "The one country where Australia actually paid for a centre is the one country Julia Gillard's too proud to talk too." Mr Smith will go to Jakarta later this week to discuss Labor's regional plan and process. He said he would receive a report on the discussions held by Australian officials in East Timor in a few days and would then discuss it with his East Timorese counterpart, Zacarias da Costa. "We are very much at the beginning of the process." ----------------- Australia shrugs off Timor refugee snub Talek Harris July 13 (AFP) -- Australia said Tuesday it remained in talks with East Timor over a regional asylum-seeker centre, despite a rejection by the country's parliament which dealt the pre-election policy a severe blow. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Timor's government was still discussing processing Australia's poor Asian migrants -- a major plank of her election strategy which has become mired in difficulty. Australia's first woman leader, who is expected to announce polls within days after ousting the once hugely popular Kevin Rudd last month, was talking after 34 of Timor's 66 lawmakers voted against the plan. "This was a vote on a resolution in the East Timorese parliament at a time when the parliament was not well attended," she told reporters in Canberra. "We, of course, are dealing with the East Timorese government. We have officials in East Timor, they were involved in discussions with East Timor yesterday. Those discussions will continue. "Our focus is on discussions with the East Timor government, and the East Timor government continues to confirm to us that it is open to the dialogue about the regional processing centre, and we're in that dialogue now." Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is also holding talks on the proposal this week in Indonesia, a major transit point, following criticism that Gillard did not consult widely enough before making her announcement. The prime minister was forced to backtrack last week when she said Timor was only one possible location for the centre, despite earlier indicating it would be built there. The controversy has taken some gloss off the straight-talking, Welsh-born lawyer's image, which had gleamed after she settled a damaging mining tax row just days into her premiership. "The East Timor solution is totally and utterly sunk," said opposition leader Tony Abbott. Australia's ruling Labor Party and opposition have both unveiled tough policies on asylum-seekers, with Greens party chief Bob Brown saying the debate reminded him of 1990s anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson. Gillard's "Timor Solution" has won favour with about two-thirds of voters, although a similar number also believes the policy was badly thought-out, according to a poll of voters released this week. The prime minister is also expected to announce a new strategy on climate change this week before calling elections. Australia currently processes asylum-seekers at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, but a steady flow of refugees has overwhelmed facilities and forced the reopening of centres on the mainland. The arrival of asylum-seekers, mainly from war-torn Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, proved a thorn in Rudd's side after he scrapped the harsh mandatory detention policy of his conservative predecessor, John Howard. East Timor, a mainly Catholic country of just over a million people, remains aid-dependent more than 10 years after its bloody vote to split from Indonesia. Australia is a major donor and has about 400 peacekeeping troops there.
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