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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1018 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Father Filomeno has negotiated with the Victorian Government to obtain a hundred computers for use in higher education, and he is approaching state governments and the Catholic system for help as well. One thing they want is a large photocopier, something we take for granted. They want desks, pens and pencils, paper and the basics.

Another need is for a ship to take the equipment and other items to Dili. It is easy for us to give things, but we have to work out a way to get them there. It is just not going to happen overnight. A massive operation is needed to provide the general infrastructure to keep people fed and healthy while all of this is going on. We cannot ignore the requirements of those who are giving assistance.

This reminds me how much we take for granted much of what goes on around us. Once you sit and think about it for a little while, the total devastation which has occurred begins to have an impact, notwithstanding the pictures you see on the television of all the horrid things which have occurred in that place.

Another thing they are wrestling with is which language is going to be the language of instruction. Indonesian education staff have played a significant role in East Timor because of the transmigration policies of Indonesia, and there has been an attempt to impose the Indonesian culture on the East Timorese culture. I expect that, because it is in the region, Indonesia is not going to be ignored, but there is an effort for them to have a multilingual society. They want to concentrate on developing English and Portuguese schools, but they also want to use Tetum, which I suspect is the local language. This will be used at various levels in the school system. That is fine. We can talk about that, but we have to develop a curriculum and materials in that language and find the teachers. I am told that there are something like only 1,500 teachers left in the province. Many primary school teachers were murdered and all of the Indonesian bureaucracy, which included many Indonesian teachers, has left the country. We have to deal with this problem, which for most of us is incomprehensible. We have to find ways and means of dealing with it.

The Indonesian Universitas Timor Timur was burnt down by the retreating Indonesian forces. Indonesian staff have left the country. There was a move by the Indonesian forces to ruin the entire infrastructure of the country and ruin the culture.

It is hard to come up with a formula for a request from this Assembly to describe what we want. So I have chosen to have a very general motion which just notes the devastation of the education infrastructure in that country; that the CNRT education spokesperson, Father Filomeno Jacob, has called for support from Australian authorities; that he will attend the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. The motion further states that this Assembly calls on the ACT Government to support all practical aid to re-establish the education infrastructure in East Timor. We note that this is going to be an immense task that will require much organisation and the goodwill of many people. I would urge all members to support this motion wholeheartedly in order that we can restore what has been taken away from those people.

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