A couple of years ago Jose Ramos-Horta, newly elected president of east Timor, spoke at a graduation night at the University of the Sunshine Coast. There was a crowd of about 3000 people there, and you could have heard a pin drop as Jose spoke.

He spoke with great pathos on the plight of the East Timorese people.

Speaking at a university function, he spoke of the extraordinary poverty of education in East Timor. Children in classes without desks, chairs or any implements regarded as essential for education.

He spoke of the inability of the government to effectively pay teachers. He spoke of the people's struggle for freedom, and the absolute importance of education.

Now a few years later, he is President of a small country still struggling for freedom, now against internal faction fighting that poses a real threat to the growth and stability of East Timor.

The link between poverty and violence has been well established. East Timor is one of the poorest countries in the world today, and I believe it is this poverty that plays a real part in the social problems generating the violence there today.

Australia has a history of involvement with the East Timorese. These people stood beside Australia during the dark days of World War II.

They have often looked to us for help and assistance in their plight. One of the ways in which we returned that help, and played a role in the current situation, was to debate the percentage of profit that Australia would claim from the oil and gas fields in the East Timorese Sea.

Australia in fact wanted to claim 90% of this profit, based on a mobile national boundary that is in one place as a basis for discussion of profit from oil and gas fields, and is in another place as a basis for dealing with and treating refugees.

It seems to me that if Australia, now claiming to be richer than we have ever been before, were to give all of the profit to East Timor, it would not have threatened our national budget in any way. If this is the case, it amounts to a national exercise in gross selfishness.

Being a good money manager also means respecting Justice, the rights of others and acting with compassion.

Failure to act in this way will erode confidence in us, and in fact will weaken our standing, and ultimately impact on our reputation and well-being. Maybe the lesson we have to learn is that selfishness ultimately costs the selfish person.