Gillard`s Timor plan "not acceptable"

Julia Gillard has vowed to "relentlessly pursue" her push for a regional refugee
processing centre in the face of further doubt over support for the plan in East
Timor.
The prime minister on Wednesday set about gathering the backing of regional
neighbours, discussing the plan in a telephone conversation with Indonesian
president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Australian diplomats have also been dispatched to brief the governments of Indonesia
and East Timor on the prime minister's speech on Tuesday, in which she announced the
new border protection policy.
A spokesman for the prime minister confirmed Ms Gillard raised her plan with Dr
Yudhoyono, and that the Indonesian president had agreed that a regional response to
people smuggling was required.
"The prime minister explained that Australia looked forward to working with
Indonesia and other countries in the region to tackle irregular migration, including
the initiative for a regional processing centre," the spokesman said.
"The prime minister and the president agreed on the importance of working closely
together to tackle people smuggling, and agreed to continue discussing effective
cooperation on border protection."
But as Ms Gillard continued with her push for a cooperative approach, it emerged
East Timor's most powerful political party were unwilling to support the idea.
Fretilin MP Jose Teixeira said his party did not support the proposal, adding that
it would be unfair to put such pressure on the emerging island nation.
"We can say in principle that any form of a processing centre as have been discussed
is not acceptable to Timor Leste," he said.
"It's an unfair burden to put on us as an emerging society, post-conflict, as a
society that has a number of social and economic pressures on it. It's unfair to put
that additional pressure on here."
Ms Gillard raised the idea on Monday night with East Timorese President Jose
Ramos-Horta, who indicated his support, before she announced the plan the following
day.
But Mr Teixeira said Dr Ramos-Horta had no constitutional power when it came to
immigration issues.
Ms Gillard, vowing to continue to push the plan, conceded the discussions were in
their early stages but insisted a whole-of-region approach was essential to combat
people smuggling.
"I will be relentlessly pursuing discussions in the region about the regional
processing centre and the idea here is a simple one, but, obviously, it's going to
take time to work through," Ms Gillard said.
But the coalition maintains the change in policy direction is simply an election
fix, with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott saying the regional processing centre would
never be built by Labor.
"The East Timorese won't accept it and the current government doesn't really want to
do it," Mr Abbott said.
"This is a political fix for the election. It's not a policy fix for the problem of
border protection and the flow of boats."
The comments came as the prime minister announced a new package to boost efforts
against people smuggling in the region as she toured Border Protection Command in
Darwin.
Indonesia will be given new patrol boats and surveillance aircraft to detect and
disrupt people smuggling, while law enforcement agencies in Malaysia, Thailand,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also be provided with additional support.
Australia's police presence in the region will be increased, with another seven
federal police officers to be deployed to work with law enforcement partners.
Ms Gillard said the initiative underlined the government's commitment to working
with regional neighbours on the problem of people smuggling.