Senator CROSSIN (5:33 PM) —I also take note of the response from the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs in relation to the plight of East Timorese asylum seekers, particularly those who are based in the Northern Territory. I understand that the number of people is still around 80. I concur with Senator Bartlett that this is a very disappointing response and, as a factual response, it tells us nothing more than what we already know. Those of us who have been involved with these people, working with these people and the associated groups who assist them, know full well the facts that are outlined in this letter. But what we were hoping to see, and what we have not seen, was some sort of compassion from this minister and this government for these people. I believe that Minister Ruddock feels very uncomfortable about this situation and about the fact that he has people inside his government holding his hands when it comes to signing off on these people. I believe that, if Minister Ruddock were given the opportunity and the free mind and will to do something about this, he would. So my comments go to those people around him who are preventing him from exercising this sort of compassion.

In the last fortnight, we have seen the results of the first couple of refugee tribunal decisions that have come down. Last week, we saw the first five of those decisions in the Northern Territory. All five of those people have had their reviews rejected by the tribunal and, therefore, they are now on the path of having to pay $1,000 and to appeal directly to the minister, as he has outlined the process in this response. What goes hand-in-hand with that is the fact that, once they get the decision from the review tribunal that their appeal is unsuccessful, they also lose any benefits that are being paid to them by this government.

Some 50 East Timorese people in the Northern Territory receive ASAS funding, under the Asylum Seekers Assistance Scheme, which is administered through the Red Cross. We know that 22 of those 50 people are children. Some 15 of them are aged over 50. So that leaves us with 13 people in the gap. I understand that some of those 13 are attending university. Some are married and have children, and their wives or partners and their children make up part of the 50. Some spend their days volunteering in community based organisations in Darwin. So these are people who are too young and are going to school or who are too old to do that but where they can, by and large, they are putting back into the community. Some of the 13, I understand, are too sick or too traumatised to do that.

These people have integrated into our community. They live in public housing. They live with people. They are not in detention centres. When this funding and assistance from the Commonwealth ceases, as it will, either this week or next week, how on earth are these people going to eat, day after day? How are they going to provide for themselves and their children. I understand that there are two main family groups in this group of 50 people. How are they going to afford to go to a doctor, to buy medicines, to get to a chemist and to feed their kids, unless something is done?

This government would say, `Why would we extend any funding to these people because we don't do it for other asylum seekers?' My response is this: these people have been here for well over a decade. These people came here as a result of the Dili massacre. They have integrated into the community as much as they possibly can despite the fact that they have suffered trauma and torture. Their lives will never be the same.

In 1999 we opened our hearts and our hands and assisted these people. I believe we now owe them some sort of support, compassion and a humanitarian approach to look after them for the rest of their lives. They have been part of our community and, by and large, probably see themselves as more Australian than East Timorese these days. They have been integrated into our community. Not only do they now need to rely on this government to feed themselves day after day; they also now need this country to pick them up and cradle them and say, `We will help you get on with your life. You have gone through enough trauma and torture. You have spent 10 years in limbo waiting for some government to do something about your future. Don't worry about it now. Close the book on that chapter in your life and we will help you move on.'

But no. We have an opportunity under this federal government to do just that and they open up another book that is probably more horrific than the pages of the chapter of the book that they have experienced and travelled along for the past 10 years. They do not know whether they will be sent back to East Timor. They do not know whether their appeal to the minister will be successful. Out of the five families who had a decision last week, I would bet the most of them are wondering where tomorrow's dinner is going to come from. As of next week they will have to rely on the Red Cross or St Vincent de Paul or a large section of the Northern Territory community who are fundraising to either help them pay for the thousand dollars or put food on their table.

This is a very tragic and inhumane case. These East Timorese are crying out for our assistance. With one stroke of a pen this government could give them a special humanitarian visa. We are talking about 1,500 or 1,600 people in this country, a very small number of people in a community like Darwin. It is possible. The minister has the power to do what he would like to do regardless of the act. He could create a special visa if he wanted to. He could increase funding to the Red Cross for the next couple of weeks or months while these people continue along the path of appeal so that they can be guaranteed the kind of existence they have had over the past 10 years for the next couple of months while the last couple of chapters of this saga are being played out.

I appeal to the people who sit in cabinet with Minister Ruddock to have a look at the plight of these people. Try to have some empathy with these people and think about what it will be like in the next couple of weeks and months as they embark on this process. The Northern Territory News carried a story last Friday of a 55-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man who are part of the 80 or so East Timorese people in the Northern Territory. These two people are sick and elderly. Yet there is not one ounce of compassion shown to these people. Why on earth would you want to send them back to East Timor at this stage of their life? They would probably go back to nobody, back to nothing, with no home or no business—if that is what they were doing prior to arriving post the Dili massacre. There is absolutely no sense in this government turning its back on these people and totally ignoring them as they have over the past months since this situation came to a head.

We have had the Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, and the Leader of the Opposition, Denis Burke, in the Northern Territory parliament move motions of support for these people. We have had rally after rally and a public outpouring of support for these people—and another rally is planned in a couple of weeks time. Nobody in the Darwin community is saying, `We don't want these people.' There are people questioning why they are getting financial assistance from the government. But gradually, as we explain to these East Timorese, they came here with nothing—that they had been either shot at or shot and that they had fled for their lives many years ago—they understand why we are trying to provide them with some sort of support.

Senator Bartlett is right. A stroke of a pen by this government would win them an enormous amount of credibility. What are they frightened of? Are they afraid that they will let down the shutters on their whole asylum seeker policy and facade, that there will be a little chink in their armour and suddenly they will be seen to be soft on people immigrating to this country and soft on asylum seekers? I say otherwise. I challenge the Prime Minister and Minister Ruddock—and I strongly believe Minister Ruddock personally wants to do something about this and is being held back—to show some compassion, to turn the Australian community around in your stance on asylum seekers, to assist these 1,500 or so people to stay in this country. It is what they want. It is what they deserve. This country ought to show some empathy for the plight of these people and to recognise the trauma, the torture, the pain and the suffering that they have gone through over the last decade. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.