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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (2 April) . . Page.. 1287 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

I have already mentioned that these people have integrated themselves quite well in the community. I have already mentioned that they work and they pay taxes. But a lot of these people left their country under very difficult circumstances and have not been back to their country since they left. It is very difficult to pick up where you left off when you leave under that type of cloud. It is not as if we can say, "You know what? You've had 10 years here, or nine or eight, or whatever it is. We think we've given you a fair go. Now chuff off."It is a nonsense.

If their applications had been processed when they arrived-and Indonesia ruled Timor at the time, remember-they would have been successful and most would be Australian citizens now, as I mentioned earlier. The main delay was due to Australia's view that Portugal was the refuge of such asylum seekers, a claim rejected by the Federal Court.

In the article in the Australian that Mrs Dunne quoted from before, it says, "Domestic politics suggests this is a one-off issue."I stated this clearly. I am not going to make a moral judgement against the immigration minister, Mr Ruddock, because I feel he has a very difficult job. He has stated, as mentioned earlier, that he will assess these issues on a case-by-case basis. I know that the Prime Minister has put the East Timorese case to the Australian people as a special case, and most Australians still share the view that it is.

While I would like us to be all things to all people, we can't. Why did I bring this to the chamber? Because I have constituents in my electorate who are part of this group who do not want to go back. Even though this is a federal government decision that has to be made, I have had people coming to me for some time saying, "We do not want to go back. We have been living in this community for some time, and we want to remain."This is why I decided to bring this motion to the Assembly.

That does not preclude any other member from bringing on any other motion about any other group of people that they feel have been badly treated or should be revisited in some way. I am happy to do it. But please do not get up in this chamber and say to me that we could have included this and this and this. No. This motion is simply to do with the East Timorese. I understand about the groups that other people mentioned, and I empathise. I do not like to see people suffer. I certainly do not like to see people victimised. I do not think anyone in this chamber likes to see anybody victimised. Although I am sure some people enjoy doing it, I do not think they would like to experience it.

As for the peacekeeping forces that were mentioned before, I was fortunate enough to meet a lot of these people. My colleague Mr Pratt has had the benefit of meeting some of them as well. I found them to be incredible people, particularly our Australian soldiers. Most people know that I have a close affinity with the Defence Force through my husband. I have a lot of friends in many countries who have sacrificed their personal life to serve their country and help others in great need.

I saw many Australians in East Timor sacrificing their personal enjoyment to do what was right, perhaps in redressing past wrongs that were inflicted by successive governments. My motion is not about blame; my motion is not about trying to put someone out there and shoot them because they did something wrong; my motion is simply that we have an unusual case. We have an extenuating situation here, and this is

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