East Timorese and Australian officials will develop a proposal for a refugee processing centre to be put to both governments by early next year, the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, said.
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After talks with the Timorese President, Jose Ramos-Horta, and key cabinet ministers in Dili, Mr Bowen said a working group would meet next month to develop a plan that could be put to the Bali Process, a regional group of nations formed to combat people smuggling.
Any centre, if approved, would be there for a ''substantial'' amount of time, Mr Bowen told the Herald.
Dr Ramos-Horta said he had been referring to the asylum seekers being ''temporary'', and not the processing centre, in his comments a day earlier.
Mr Bowen said Dr Ramos-Horta had assured him in the meeting he was ''an advocate'', and there was interest in the centre at senior levels of government.
''There was a concern to make sure it was a genuine regional approach, and not just an agreement between Australia and Timor-Leste,'' Mr Bowen said.
Dr Ramos-Horta said he would need to take a detailed proposal to the Prime Minister and key parliamentary committees and explain it to the East Timorese people.
''If we are to agree with it, we would want our people to embrace it and not [be] something that they would feel that was imposed on them … The people who come to Timor-Leste would have to feel welcome,'' he said.
A partial vote by the East Timorese Parliament had earlier rejected accepting a refugee centre. Mr Bowen yesterday met with the opposition's secretary-general, Mari Alkatiri, and a Fretilin delegation.
''Dr Alkatiri made it clear that yes, his organisation had the view that there would be very considerable issues to work through if this were to proceed. But he also made the point very strongly that he thought the dialogue should continue,'' Mr Bowen said.
Mr Bowen said he had not discussed a price tag but had told the East Timorese ''there would need to be clear benefits for Timor-Leste in terms of economic development and capacity development''.
This could include East Timorese staff being trained to work in any centre, and educational or medical facilities being made available to the broader population, he said.
Mr Bowen said it was ''open for discussion as to whether [a centre] would be indefinite or open for a substantial period, be that 10, 15, 20, 30 years''.
The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said there was no timetable or proposal for a regional processing centre and ''the government has just agreed to talk more''.
Mr Bowen travelled to Indonesia last night and said he wanted a deal to be finalised within this term of government.
