Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House of what diplomatic and consular steps Australia is taking to assist East Timor?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First of all, I thank the honourable member for Cook and I appreciate his interest. Let me say that the security situation as of last we have heard in Dili is bad. We are very concerned about the security situation on the ground and there are reports of shootings, so there is a good deal of danger there. Of course, our first priority is to the welfare of the 800 Australians who are in East Timor, and we continue to advise those Australians who are there that they should leave and that Australians who are considering going to East Timor as civilians should not do so.

I have directed that the non-essential Australian government staff and their dependants should depart as quickly as possible. Although the last I heard the civil airport was open and there have been scheduled civilian flights over the last few days, the government is arranging a C130 flight to assist the departure of Australians as necessary and that flight is expected to leave sometime this afternoon or possibly this evening.

As far as diplomacy is concerned, I think honourable members will be aware that I have had many conversations with my friend and counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta over the last few days. He, of course, has been a very constructive interlocutor in putting together this assistance that Australia is providing.

I know a number of honourable members will be interested in the role of the United Nations in all of this. Our Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Hill, has spoken to the United Nations Secretary-General’s chief of staff—Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, is currently I think on a trip to Vietnam—and he has written to the Secretary-General and the current President of the Security Council informing them of East Timor’s request for assistance. The Secretary-General has also been notified by New Zealand and Portugal. The current President of the United Nations Security Council released a media statement a short time ago which said, amongst other things:

The members of the Council—

being the Security Council—

expressed their full understanding of the request, and appreciated the initial favourable responses made so far by the Governments concerned.

That, if you like, informal statement by the President of the Security Council is likely to be followed up, probably this evening our time, by a formal presidential statement that is being drafted and negotiated at the moment. I have spoken this morning with the American Secretary of State, Condi Rice. The Americans are giving a good deal of assistance to ensure that this presidential statement is made. So insofar as there are concerns about how the United Nations fits in to what is happening and what we are doing, I think that is proceeding satisfactorily.