Help East Timor, pleads council

CASEY Council is urging the Federal Government to help out in East Timor.
At last week’s council meeting, a motion was passed to write to the Howard Government requesting financial support for the Friends of Ermera and other East Timorese friendship cities established by local governments.
If the letter, also forwarded to local federal Liberal MPs, does not elicit the response council is after, mayor Colin Butler and councillors Rob Wilson and Paul Richardson will travel to Canberra later this year to meet Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.
The notice of motion was brought forward by Cr Richardson, who said East Timor was in urgent need of support and the council needed to help.
It followed a response from Mr Downer to a letter from Federal La Trobe MP Jason Wood on behalf of the Friends of Ermera’s Rob Daniel.
The letter had questioned the Government’s funding commitments to East Timorese aid projects.
Mr Downer responded with a lengthy letter on the ways Australia was already helping in the war-torn territory.
The council now wants to see the Federal Government provide financial support for programs established by local governments in East Timor and help their endeavours to work for self-management and self-determination in education, housing and other related issues.
Despite some Casey councillors questioning the involvement of council in a federal issue, especially the likelihood of their requests being taken up by the Government, the motion was carried.
– Sarah Schwager