Page 1454 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Dr Freitas was also encouraged to take steps to develop the transparency and rigour of the DIT’s governance arrangements.
In 2004-05 CIT assisted DIT with staff exchanges and with the contribution of equipment to support the development of automotive courses at the facility and resources for the library. These two initiatives, the Tuggeranong consortium and the CIT support of DIT, are founded on the belief that education is vital to a society. These progressive programs deserve our support now and into the future. I urge you all to support this motion.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (12.16): I am certainly more than happy to support Mr Gentleman’s motion on this matter and I acknowledge the significant interest and involvement that Mr Gentleman has had in our relationship with Dili and with the Canberra Friends of Dili.
It is almost two years since the Canberra-Dili friendship agreement with the Dili district administrator, Mr Ruben de Carvalho, was signed by me and Mr Carvalho in Dili, which was on 7 June 2004. With me on that historic day were the president of the Canberra Friends of Dili and the chief executive officer of the Canberra Institute of Technology. But there were certainly many more than just we three there in spirit. In that regard, I think most particularly of the Canberra Friends of Dili, many of whom had worked hard to support the realisation of a recognition of the special relationship between Canberra, and indeed Australia, and Dili.
It is as a result of the impetus provided initially by the Canberra Friends of Dili that Canberra now has a formal friendship agreement with Dili. The Canberra-Dili friendship agreement is recognition of a long-established fact: our people have been friends for more than half a century. Australians still recall with genuine gratitude the sacrifices of those East Timorese who protected Australian servicemen in World War II, some at great personal sacrifice. The courage of the East Timorese inspired Australians then and continues to inspire us today as a new nation is built.
The goals of our friendship relationship are mainly humanitarian, although we have also forged educational, cultural, economic and sporting links. The ACT government already supports community-to-community educational activities. Now it is seeking ways that it might help in the areas of communications and personal safety. During a visit to Canberra in March this year for the United Nations Fund for Women, the first lady of Timor-Leste, Ms Kirsty Sword Gusmao, told an International Women’s Day luncheon of the lack of personal safety experienced by more than half of all Dili’s women and the welcome prospect of a domestic violence bill. She spoke of the proportion of East Timorese who experience malnutrition, the high rates of illiteracy and child mortality and the huge numbers of East Timorese who subsist on less than US50c a day.
We wonder at the capacity of a fledgling nation to maintain public peace under such conditions. Ms Sword Gusmao spoke from the heart of how highly Timor-Leste values public peace. We can all imagine how painful and disturbing it must have been to see the recent eruption into violence and unrest once again in Dili. It is certainly something that I, in observing it from this distance via by TV and on the news, am most distressed about.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .