Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As part of our rolling cooperation with Indonesia on the challenge of asylum seekers we have had a whole range of discussions over a long period of time about how that cooperation should be unfolded. It deals also with Indonesia’s existing caseload of asylum seekers within Indonesia itself. It deals also with the totality of the caseload in that country. We stand ready to assist Indonesians in their challenges, in their dealings with other resettlement countries and also where we can assist with Australia. That has been the case in the past. That will be the case in the future. That was the case also, I seem to recall, on the part of the previous government, which assisted with some resettlement of those who were asylum seekers in Indonesia to Australia. That is precisely the approach that we would embrace in the future because for the Indonesian government, President Yudhoyono and myself the situation is as follows. This is a common challenge for both of us and therefore we would work very closely with Indonesia on source problems, on what we do with transit people who are in Indonesia itself and also what we do with people who need resettlement to other countries, including Australia.

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