About the Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network
The Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network (AusTimorFN) will be bringing together Australia Timor-Leste Friendship groups that operate across Australia and in Timor-Leste.
The Network was established in late 2009 following many of the Australian groups and delegates to the first Friendship Conference held in Dili the 2008 seeking a way to support each other with information sharing, lessons learned and contacts.
In July 2009 the Timor-Leste Minister for State Administration Snr Archangelo Leite endorsed this activity and direction for the Friendship Groups as this will assist a central point of communication for all.
The ‘AusTimorFN’ or Network seeks to bring about the better flow of information between Friendship groups and between the partner communities in Timor-Leste and importantly with the Government of Timor-Leste.
The Network is early in its design and will seek to facilitate the work of and communication between the now more than 50 Australia Timor-Leste Friendship groups that have grown from communities across Australia.
The Network has a ‘point of contact’ in each State and a National Convenor.
Based on the founding principles of the Friendship groups, the Network continues to endorse:
1. Respect and support for Timorese-led decision-making,
2. Sustainable and long-term (10 year) assistance, and
3. Relationships are based on partnerships of mutual respect and collaboration.
How will the Network work?
In 2009 discussions with Minister Leite and the AusTimorFN it was agreed to
- Work with close coordination to better facilitate the individual Friendship arrangements;
- Support Timor-Leste’s plans for sustainable development.
- Explore opportunities for developing and extending programs including electoral observation, political training
Friends in Timor-Leste requested that we establish the basic principles of operation, and create a central point for communication for Friendship activities.
The advantages of this proposal for Australian Friendship groups is that we assist local government in strengthening local communities, establish further opportunities for funding of training, expand our understanding of international issues and build positive connections.
The members of the AusTimorFN will enjoy working with each other and with the Government of Timor-Leste to build our communities stronger.
AusTimorFN Convenor Rae Kingsbury (nee Perry)
Background
Through her membership of the Victorian Local Governance Association, in 1999 Councillor Rae Kingsbury (formerly Perry), in conjunction with the then head of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid Human Rights Office, Pat Walsh, sponsored Australia’s largest observer mission to Timor-Leste’s vote for independence.
Following the widespread destruction and violence that accompanied the ballot, Rae co-founded the Australia-Timor-Leste Friendship Groups in December 1999 in cooperation with the now Timor-Leste Consul-General in Sydney, Abel Guterres, at the request of the head of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT) Xanana Gusmao. Xanana Gusmao has since gone on to become President of Timor-Leste and now Prime Minister.
Rae was a Local Government Councillor with Darebin City Council at that time, and worked to establish the relationship, inviting the City of Yarra to partner Friendship Group, with Baucau. This Friendship Group was followed soon after by the Cities of Hume and Moreland (Aileu), Mornington Peninsula (Los Palos), and Port Phillip (Suai).
Rae continued to promote and develop Friendship Groups, especially as Mayor of Darebin in 2004 and as President of the Australian Local Government Association. Thereafter, and especially as Chief Executive Officer of the VLGA, Rae increasingly involved that organisation in support for Timor-Leste, including hosting visits to Australia by Xanana Gusmao and then Foreign Minister, later Prime Minister and then President Jose Ramos-Horta, among others.
Following illness in 2008, Rae resigned her position as VLGA CEO in May 2009. However, her involvement in and support for the Australia-Timor-Leste Friendships Groups continues as strong as ever.
