Gusmao advises Julia Gillard to firm up boatpeople plan before she calls
EAST Timor's leader Xanana Gusmao today advised Julia Gillard not to call him directly about her asylum-seeker plan until the idea was fully formed.
Prime Minister Gusmao said he was currently “very busy” with other government business and that he had asked President Jose Ramos-Horta to continue discussions with Ms Gillard and report back to him when the plan was more mature.
But Mr Gusmao gave conditional support to the proposal for asylum-seekers to be processed at a regional centre based in East Timor.
He said he had “open mind” on the proposal, but warned that he would need to see the detail of Ms Gillard's proposal. Even then, he said at a press conference in Dili, the plan would require extensive investigation by his government and lengthy debate in the parliament before the measure could proceed.
Ms Gillard has been accused of failing to properly consult East Timor about her boatpeople plan, with Tony Abbott saying it showed that amateurs were running the country.
Ms Gillard should have known to deal with East Timor's prime minister, not its president, who holds no executive role, the opposition leader said.
“The fact she did not know this and did not think to ask this demonstrates that frankly we have amateurs running the Australian government,” he said.
But Mr Gusmao denied being offended by Ms Gillard's diplomatic gaffe.
East Timor's leader, , has advised Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard not to contact him about  until a fully formed plan has been established.

Prime minister Gusamo claims he is preoccupied with other government matters and has asked , East Timor's president, to continue deliberations on the issue with Gillard.

Gillard has proposed a regional processing approach center in East Timor to tackle the increasing numbers of Asylym seekers in the Oceanic Region, to which Gusamo has announced conditional support for by saying that he needed to see the details of the proposal before he could say for certain and would then need to be extensively reviewed in parliament.

Australian opposition leader, , has criticised Gillard for not correctly involving East Timor in the proposal's development. This was in light of Gillard addressing the President of East Timor and not the prime minister directly, assuming the president holds the executive powers of the country. This, however, is not the case with the government holding the executive powers.

“The fact she did not know this and did not think to ask this demonstrates that frankly we have amateurs running the Australian government,” Abbot claimed.

Prime minister Gusamo, however, was not offended by Gillard's gaffe.