Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

‘It is impossible to imagine a more pro-Australian Indonesian President’ than Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Sadly, he will be appreciated more after his departure from office. Yudhoyono brings the torch of friendship to an Australia still deeply equivocal about the equation of democracy, Islam and nationalism that constitutes our great neighbour.

That was the judgment of Paul Kelly, one of Australia’s pre-eminent political commentators. There is no regional relationship more important to Australia than our relationship with Indonesia. As President Yudhoyono said, it is not just an economic relationship; it is a strategic relationship that is central to Australia’s security.

Cooperation between the two peoples in effectively stamping out the Islamist networks that carried out the Bali bombings has been one of the more positive developments in our region in recent times. Dulmatin, one of the surviving architects of the Bali mass murder, was among the three terrorists killed in Jakarta yesterday. It is a remarkable thing that Indonesia has managed simultaneously to become a successful democracy and to crack down very strongly on these terrorist cells.

President Yudhoyono pointed out that the relationship between Australia and Indonesia is becoming a people-to-people relationship. I must say that during the lunch I thought the avuncular remarks of the Leader of the Opposition about travel warnings and Australian tourists going to Bali were fair enough. I personally am going back to Indonesia for, I think, the sixth time in April.

But I am sorry to have to draw attention to one jarring note in yesterday’s proceedings. That was the speech made in the parliament by the Leader of the Opposition. In only 300 words, he managed to work in two partisan jibes directed at the Prime Minister: one on the subject of people-smuggling and the other on the Prime Minister’s proposal for a new regional forum. The Leader of the Opposition needs to learn that there are times and places when partisan politics are not appropriate, and one of them is when making speeches in front of visiting heads of state. To make partisan jibes in such a speech is inappropriate, undignified and harmful to Australia’s national interests. It is something that John Howard, for example, would never have done.

No doubt our guests will draw their own conclusions about the man who puts himself forward as Australia’s alternative Prime Minister—although, of course, they are too polite to make any references to his inappropriate remarks. I, however, am not obliged to be so diplomatic. The Leader of the Opposition confirmed the view held by most observers of his behaviour since becoming leader last year that he does not think before he speaks, he always manages to offend someone whatever he says and he never knows when to stop. These are not the qualities Australia wants in a Prime Minister.

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