Could the Chief Minister inform the House of the Northern Territory’s role in providing aid to East Timor and support for the popular consultation on the future status of East Timor, scheduled for 8 August?

ANSWER

Mr Speaker, I take the opportunity to give a detailed brief as to where this government is and the efforts that are occurring and ongoing with regard to the East Timor situation. Members would be aware of my meeting with the Prime Minister on 1 March to discuss the emerging crisis in East Timor, the capability statement produced as a result, and our close and ongoing consultations with the Timorese community in Darwin.

I will detail some of the massive logistical efforts being made by the Australian government’s AusAid organisation, in conjunction with the Northern Territory government and business community. The changing situation on the ground in East Timor, which so often leads to tragedy, makes detailed planning and timing difficult, but that’s the situation as it stands at the moment, and these decisions are being made on a day-by-day basis.

In the next couple of weeks more than 600 personnel plan to stage through Darwin for deployment in East Timor. This is made up of the original 51 Australian Federal Police for the UN Police effort, plus an additional 262 police from the United Nations member nations. Current planning has them doing a week’s intensive training and acclimatisation at Darwin bases before deployment. Another 300 UN volunteers, who will help organise and monitor the self determination election process, will also spend a week in Darwin in 100-person contingents for final instructions from 25 UN specialist trainers.

The Northern Territory government has made the old Reserve Bank building in Bennett Street available to the UN and affiliated agencies as an operations base. A team from the International Organisation for Migration has been working out of the bank building since last week. A four-man UN team is due to move in early next week, and myself and the Minister for Asian Relations and Trade will formally hand the building over on a temporary basis to the UN team next Tuesday, 8 June.

The Northern Territory office of the Australian Electoral Commission will organise the popular consultation, otherwise known as the election of self-determination in East Timor and Australia. The International Organisation for Migration will conduct the poll in the rest of Indonesia, Portugal and its former territories from the Darwin base. An officer from the humanitarian relief section of AusAid has been in Darwin for a month organising initial purchases and transport for the UN effort. This includes some hundreds of 4-wheel drive vehicles through Territory suppliers, charter of 3 helicopters and crews to work in East Timor, and a fixed wing aircraft to run a supporting Darwin/Dili shuttle, medical supplies, and literally scores of airconditioners, refrigerators and electrical equipment and spares.

The Perkins Shipping vessel, MP Arctic Atlantic, left Darwin on 15 May for the 32 hour journey to Dili, carrying 1000 cubic metres of cargo consolidated by AusAid, including 25 4WD vehicles, mobile workshops and ground station equipment for the helicopters and other electrical equipment. A further shipment from the Perkins dock is due to leave on Sunday 6 June and thereafter will probably run a fortnightly shuttle to Dili until the task is complete.

The Timorese community in Darwin have not been idle during the world community endeavour to find a way to limit the violence in East Timor and allow the votes of 6 June and 8 August to go ahead. The 3 major Timorese groups which form the Darwin Committee for Aid to East Timor are working very closely with Red Cross, the combined churches of Darwin and members of the government and opposition. One result was the national launch of the fundraising appeal for East Timor through CARATAS, the Catholic Relief Agency, which was hosted by Mr Speaker in the main hall of Parliament House on Wednesday 19 May.

The Northern Territory government made available an initial $10 000 for the fundraising effort and the churches, the Timorese associations and social clubs, Red Cross and other groups are adding to this all the time. The Department of Asian Relations and Trade has advertised widely for potential supplies to register for new and administered tenders for the East Timor effort and the tender form is still available from the old DARTI website.

That’s an update on where this government and the Darwin community is with relations to our support effort in East Timor. I can say with some satisfaction that it was always my belief that Darwin was the logical support base for any operation to East Timor, and that has occurred. One can only be hopeful that the popular consultation which is planned for 8 August will occur satisfactorily. However, I would have to say that at this stage I remain pessimistic that more effort will be required and peace keepers may ultimately be deployed.