East Timor rejects Gillard's plan

East Timor's parliament has rejected a proposal by the Australian government to
establish a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.
All parties of the East Timorese government were in opposition to the proposal
floated by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, ABC Radio reported.
The decision to reject the proposal was unanimous among the 34 members of East
Timor's 65 person parliament who voted on the resolution.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has declined to comment on the East Timor parliament's
decision on Monday.
The news came as Ms Gillard launched author Blanche d'Alpuget's latest book, Hawke:
The Prime Minister, in Sydney.
Immediately after the launch, Ms Gillard was asked by journalists to comment on the
East Timorese resolution.
She declined to comment, saying good night to them instead, and rushed off.
Earlier on Monday, Ms Gillard said she was focused on dialogue with East Timor on
setting up the centre.
"I announced it last Tuesday and I have been determined each day since to get it
done. We are now in dialogue with East Timor," Ms Gillard earlier told reporters in
Adelaide.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is expected to discuss the issue of asylum seekers
with Indonesian officials in Jakarta later this week.
He defended a decision earlier in the day not to visit East Timor to discuss the
matter.
"We have an agreed process with East Timor," Mr Smith told Sky News ahead of the
East Timor parliament's decision.
"That process, in terms of getting officials together, starts today in Dili."
Ms Gillard was criticised last week for not consulting Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao
on the centre proposal ahead of announcing her policy.
Labor on Monday was hosing down concerns about its asylum seeker and border
protection policy, as it looked to the polls.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents to an Essential Research poll, published on
Monday, believed Labor was too soft on the issue.
But 42 per cent of people approved of the way Ms Gillard was addressing it, compared
with 33 per cent who disapproved.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has been attacking Ms Gillard on her plan to establish
a regional processing centre in East Timor or elsewhere.
"The prime minister is lost somewhere in the Timor Sea," Mr Abbott told reporters in
Canberra on Monday.
"She said that the government had lost its way. It hasn't found its way - it's
wandering around the region in search of an offshore processing centre."
MP David Bradbury, who holds the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, said the prime
minister's policy has helped to ease community tension in his seat.
"Everything that people have seen over the last week demonstrates (the) prime
minister is going to take strong and effective action," Mr Bradbury told ABC Radio
on Monday.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon denied a return to offshore processing would lead to
poorer mental health outcomes for asylum seekers.
"We would have to make sure, if we're contracting with another country, that health
needs generally, let alone mental health needs, are properly taken care of and
that's something that as a government I'm sure we would do," Ms Roxon told ABC
Television.
Ms Roxon insisted Labor's plan was not a return to the previous coalition
government's so-called Pacific solution.
But Mr Abbott was still gunning for the Howard government's tactics.
Former Howard government immigration minister Philip Ruddock earlier in the day
admitted it wasn't always possible to "turn the boats back", as Mr Abbott wants to
do.
"We (in government) certainly did experience what Labor claims might occur," he told
Macquarie Radio Network.
"People on these vessels, determined to come on, would take steps to try and disable
vessels and make it impossible for them to be safely returned."
Mr Ruddock said boats had to be secured in order to be returned safely.
When quizzed about his frontbencher's comments, Mr Abbott agreed not every boat
could be turned around.
But where it was safe to do so it should be done, the Liberal leader said.
"We would have to be guided by the advice of the naval personnel on the spot.
"Where it is possible it would be done with great care and concern for people's
safety."