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Friday, 23 November 1979


Senator CARRICK - Senator Primmer's question is important in that it does point up the geographic difficulties of the country itself, with the isolation of the tribal groups largely in the hills and in the small plateaus in the hill country and, therefore, the great difficulties of distributing food. I have remarked on the topography in Timor before. It is known to the Australian Government that this difficulty exists. It is acutely known to the international agencies, particularly the International Red Cross agencies, that this is so. One of the keen desires of the Australian Government in getting the International Red Cross into Timor was to allow it to get access to the remote parts of the country where the distress, probably, is at the greatest. I have no immediate reason to believe that there is any restriction other than that of geography and ordinary access to the hill tribes and the hill people. It is certainly not my understanding that the Indonesian Government is putting any basic restraints in the way of the distribution of food, but I will take the question up and have it looked at. It would be the Government's keen intention that there should be a total distribution of food, specifically to those areas, and to the areas of very difficult access which would need it.







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