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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1017 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

world - that is, the terrible devastation which occurred in East Timor as a result of the failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve peacefully the situation in East Timor after the vote on independence was taken there.

For many years activists in Australia have been arguing for a better deal for East Timor. We hope that that will occur. We have seen massive efforts to try to restore some human dignity in that place. We hope that in the future well-meaning people who are involved in the process will give a far better standard of living for those people and a guarantee for personal freedoms which should exist in any civilised country.

My motion today relates to education in particular. I have been asked to take this issue up by my Federal colleague Senator Kim Carr. He is a Labor Senator for Victoria and Labor's shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education. He has been involved in meetings with Father Filomeno Jacob, education spokesperson for the CNRT, which is an acronym for a Portuguese language description of the revolutionary movement for independence in East Timor. Father Filomeno sought assistance in establishing relationships. It is not as if he has just gone to the Labor Senator. He has been talking to a range of people in the Federal Liberal Government, state Labor governments, and so on. So this is not a partisan issue. This is an issue which should excite interest from any person concerned about the dreadful devastation which has happened in East Timor.

Father Filomeno is looking for the most basic of help. Let me give you a few examples of some of the things which have gone on in East Timor in relation to education infrastructure. I am advised that 700 schools need re-roofing. You would think that if a school had lost its roof or two schools had lost their rooves in the ACT, or 10 schools, we would have a job on our hands to deal with the matter with our own resources, assuming that the rest of the infrastructure of the Territory had not been affected. But here we have an entire community that has been devastated and 700 schools need re-roofing. CNRT have identified 36 as urgent priorities, but they have not been able to get the resources to repair those 36 buildings.

That would apply to much of the infrastructure in East Timor, but we cannot hope to see a decent standard of living developing in that country while ever there is not a proper education system in placed. I am informed that it is the intent of the CNRT, and Father Filomeno in particular, to get the education up and running in its first semester, by about October.

The information I have is a little sketchy, and I am no expert on what goes on in East Timor, but this is a plea for help which needs to be responded to quickly. The reason it is being raised today is that I am informed that there is to be a MCEETYA meeting soon. That is a dreadful acronym for the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. I also understand that Minister Stefaniak will attend that meeting and Father Filomeno Jacob will attend also and will put proposals to them for assistance.

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