Ms CORCORAN (7:54 PM) —I would like to take the remaining time to talk about a young woman called Felicidade Gutterres—I will call her Dade, for short—who stayed with me for 10 days some time ago. She comes from East Timor. Dade was active in East Timor in the period of unrest before the coming of independence. She came to Australia recently to learn about how we govern ourselves. The Friends of Manatuto, an organisation auspiced by the City of Kingston, is a small group of people in Kingston interested in East Timor which is developing a relationship with the village of Manatuto in East Timor. The Friends of Manatuto were approached for assistance for Dade and they were delighted to be able to help.

Dade arrived in Melbourne from Canberra one Saturday evening in April this year and she stayed for about 10 days. She spent some time with officers of the City of Kingston, observing how they provide the services that they do. Chelsea Rotary took Dade out one evening for dinner at the state parliament, where she met some of our local state MPs. Dade also spent some time in Geelong and two days with me, as I moved around my electorate and attended a women’s health conference held in Melbourne. Dade is trying to find funds to get herself back to Australia to do some postgraduate studies in politics and policy development. Dade is very interested in getting herself involved in government in East Timor in the next elections to be held there.

It was very interesting to listen to Dade talk about her experiences before independence. She told me about hiding in the hills for weeks at a time, whilst Indonesian troops rampaged through the villages below. Dade talked about the day that she went to Dili to observe election proceedings. Her husband and her two sons were hiding. She handed her small daughter to the nuns at a nearby convent, with instructions that, should she not return, the nuns were to find her husband and hand her daughter over to him. I cannot imagine how that must feel when setting out for a day’s work.

Dade said over and over again that Timor L’Este needs resources in almost every area. She saw the resources around us here in Parliament House—our library facilities and everything else—as way beyond anything available in Timor L’Este. My contribution to Dade’s stay in Melbourne was to provide her with accommodation in my home and this led us to spending quite some time together. I can only admire Dade’s determination to learn and to take whatever skills and ideas she could back to Timor L’Este, her ongoing concern over many years for her own country and her determination and perseverance in what must be extremely difficult times.

The stark differences that Dade described brought home to me, once again, just what a lucky country Australia is and how we all should be doing all we can, wherever we are, to assist our neighbours. It also brought home to me the benefit of talking to somebody on a first-hand basis. We can read books and reports and listen to radio programs, but talking to somebody who has been there and experienced things for themselves is truly the best way to learn—short of actually making a visit.

On a somewhat sadder note, I would like to speak of a problem that was raised with me by a constituent about the tutorial voucher system that exists. This woman—I will call her Ms L—has a son who recently did not do particularly well in his grade 3 reading program and is now entitled to a $700 voucher, promised by the government. At the end of April this year, my constituent rang the 1800 number that was advertised, but her call was not answered. She rang the number again; her call was not answered. She tried many times and ended up emailing the agency. She finally made contact with somebody. By then she was very frustrated. At that point she was advised that the computer screens were down, but her details were taken and she was assured that a suitable match would be made in due course. There was silence. There was no response for a long time, despite further attempts to telephone and get hold of an officer.

At the end of May, Ms L became very frustrated and approached me for some assistance. My office, again after lots of difficulty, finally got through and contacted the people running this program, and a gentleman there promised that he would put some priority on her request. But the point I want to make is that this is now two months later and we should not have to put a priority on this particular request. I do not understand why she was not processed properly and helped in the right way initially. Ms L is very concerned about her son and his reading ability and wants to provide him with the best help she can. She is totally frustrated by this seemingly senseless delay. I wonder too what the delay is. Is the scheme not being administered properly, or are there simply not enough tutors in the system to cope with demand? (Time expired)