Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the importance of Australia's bilateral relationship with Indonesia;

(2) notes that:

(a) two-way investment between Australia and Indonesia was valued at $10.4 billion in 2016;

(b) 16,200 Indonesian tourists visited Australia and 1.248 million Australians visited Indonesia in 2016, making Indonesia Australia's second most popular holiday destination;

(c) cultural engagement programs like those fostered by the Australia-Indonesia Institute, the Australia-Indonesia Centre and CAUSINDY: the Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth, are paramount to continuing to develop strong people-to-people links;

(d) Darwin has a key role to play in Australia's relationship with Indonesia through:

(i) educational opportunities such as Charles Darwin University's exchange programs, research groups, and international student places;

(ii) assisting Indonesia in building their emergency and disaster management capacity;

(iii) quick-response health resources like the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre; and

(iv) further strengthening trade capabilities and opportunities in the cattle industry, with Indonesia taking approximately 60 per cent of Australia's overall live cattle exports and more than a third of Australia's live cattle exports currently shipped through the Port of Darwin; and

(e) there are many areas in which cooperation between Indonesia and Australia could be strengthened for mutual benefit, including:

(i) countering transnational crime through cyber-security capacity building;

(ii) improving Defence capabilities and humanitarian aid/disaster relief assistance;

(iii) sharing the expertise of NT health professionals through clinical training and trainee/specialist exchange programs;

(iv) partnering on tourism initiatives like Indonesia's Beyond Bali campaign to provide opportunities to regional areas such as Eastern Indonesia; and

(v) expanding trilateral cooperation with Timor-Leste to improve humanitarian aid/disaster relief and strengthen maritime security, with opportunity for inclusion of other nations;

(3) encourages Members to reflect on recent occasions when the strength of the Australia-Indonesia relationship has been strained by decisions that, with the benefit of hindsight, didn't adequately balance all aspects of the relationship between our nations; and

(4) calls on Members to ensure our words and actions at all times demonstrate our deep, enduring respect for Indonesia and the value we place in maintaining a positive relationship.

The importance of Australia's bilateral relationship with Indonesia cannot be overstated, but before I speak to my motion today, I want to offer my condolences to the Indonesian people for the pain and loss of innocent life inflicted upon them during the recent terrorist attacks across Indonesia, primarily in Surabaya but also in other places. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Indonesian people and particularly with the authorities that were targeted by these attacks.

I wrote this private member's motion before those attacks. I want to say that, in addition to our thoughts and prayers, Australia is committed to working with Indonesia to address the threat of terrorism in our region and to improve coordination between all of our regional partners. The Indonesian people value diversity and tolerance. Diversity and tolerance are core to Indonesia's psyche and also the nation's stability, success and prosperity. We all know that terrorists seek to destroy these values through cowardly and inhumane attacks, and that's why we must be resolute. A stable, prosperous Indonesia is undeniably in Australia's national interests now and into the future.

In the time I have remaining, I want to address the human elements of my motion that go to the importance of fostering people-to-people links through cultural and educational exchanges and the central role that my electorate has—that is, Darwin and Palmerston—in developing Australia's relationship with Indonesia. There are cultural engagement programs, like those fostered by the Australia-Indonesia Institute; the Australia-Indonesia Centre; CAUSINDY, the Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth; and also the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art in my electorate. These organisations are paramount for continuing to develop strong people-to-people links.

When we talk about regional cooperation, it was just this Friday past that we had a trilateral fashion show. There were Indonesian fashion designers, designers from Timor-Leste and designers from Darwin. We also have educational opportunities, such as Charles Darwin University's exchange programs, and research groups such as those at the Menzies School of Health Research. We have international student placements, which are critically important because they foster mutual understanding and respect through dialogues and exchanges of ideas and perspectives.

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to speak about the importance of our relationship with Indonesia, and the live cattle trade is just one very important area of that cooperation. I spoke about this trade when I led an Australian Labor Party international delegation to Jakarta recently. We met with major political parties and leaders, including former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former Minister for Foreign Affairs Marty Natalegawa and members of all of Indonesia's major political parties. We discussed ways that we can work better together to realise opportunities but also address the challenges facing our nation. Australia's respect for Indonesia and our commitment to strengthening the relationship were central messages that we conveyed.

In tabling this motion today, the overarching objective is simple: I want all of us in this House to ensure that our thoughts, our words and our actions at all times demonstrate our deep and enduring respect for Indonesia and the value we place on maintaining a positive relationship with Indonesia. In the time I have remaining, I just want to mention that we are working with Indonesia on countering transnational crime and enhancing security capacity. We're working together in defence cooperation and also disaster and humanitarian aid cooperation. Our NT health professionals are working very closely with health professionals in Indonesia. It is a deep and abiding relationship, and one that we must be respectful of at all times.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Mr Stephen Jones then spoke in Indonesian—

This underscores the importance that we place on government-to-government and people-to-people links with the Republic of Indonesia.

Mr Stephen Jones then spoke in Indonesian—

If language is the window through which we interpret our world, then an understanding of our neighbour's language is an essential part of our living and working together in peace and prosperity. We should do this because Indonesia is our closest neighbour. We should do it because in a few short years Indonesia will be amongst the five largest economies in the world. We should do this because we share a neighbourhood and a mutual interest in peace, security and stability. But most of all, we should do this because it will enrich us all. Visiting each other's countries, enjoying each other's cultures and environments and understanding more about each other's rich and diverse history, can only be good for all of us.

At the moment, there are around 55,000 or 56,000 people who have indicated in the census that they speak Indonesian at home. The Republic of Indonesia advises that they have some 22,000 Indonesian citizens who are living in Australia at the moment, with around 20,000 of those living in the state of New South Wales. So we have a great foundation on which to build stronger mutual ties. However, it is a matter of personal regret that while we have talked about these things we have let some of our foundations slide, particularly in relation to Indonesian language education. Only four per cent of year 12 enrolments in tertiary recognised languages in Australia were in Indonesian. And while there are around 190,000 learners of Indonesian in Australian schools, the majority of this number, some 65 per cent, are in primary school and secondary students between years 7 and 10 make up another 33 per cent of total learners. But, sadly, the majority of these students drop out before they reach high school or senior years of high school. In fact, we have seen a decrease—a steady decline—in the number of Australian students studying Indonesian language at school. This is a decline of some 10,000 students per year between the years 2005 and 2008 alone.

So there are some structural issues that we are going to have to address. We need to have more students coming through primary and secondary school studying Indonesian, and we need to have more students going on to tertiary education and studying Indonesian at a level of proficiency which will enable them to return to the classroom and teach those students Indonesian language.

If we look at the geographic location of Indonesian teachers here, that is also a matter of concern. Overwhelmingly, they are concentrated in the capital cities. It is worth noting—and as the member for Solomon has pointed out—that while the concentration of Indonesian teachers and learners of Indonesians is in the capitals, the majority of our trade with Indonesia comes from regional and rural areas. So we have an imbalance, and we particularly have an imbalance where it matters the most. I am pleased to see that the Shorten Labor opposition was focused on this in our pre-election commitments in 2016. We promised 100 scholarships a year to Australian schoolteachers so that they could further develop their Asian language skills—a scholarship of around $120,000 each to allow them to go overseas to deepen their knowledge and their language skills. I'm also pleased that the government's focus on the New Colombo Plan has included Indonesia in its earliest phases.

But much more needs to be done. We cannot just be talking about it; we must do it. I say that members of parliament, like the member for Solomon, should be leading by example and explaining why this is so important.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the honourable member on the other side of the House for his linguistic ability in standing here and being able to speak Indonesian. I'm not sure if it was off the cuff or from paper, but nevertheless, it was most impressive. I wish I could understand it! I'm somewhat hesitant to endorse the words, other than to say full credit to it him.

Isn't it important for us to ensure that more Australians speak the languages of our nearest neighbours? I certainly endorse his enthusiasm for the work that is being done under the New Colombo Plan, to give young Australians the opportunity to work, live and, indeed, learn languages, in Indonesia as well as in other places, particularly across the Asia-Pacific region.

There is no doubt that once young Australians in particular have an opportunity to live and work in a foreign country and be immersed not just in their culture but also in their language then, yes, it does deepen the ties between those two countries but it also enriches Australia. It allows Australia to strengthen its hand as it continues to operate as part of the larger global political economy. Indeed, Indonesia is important; in fact, it is vital to us as Australians. My condolences go to the people of Indonesia, and I echo the sentiments already expressed by the opposition and by our Prime Minister in that regard.

Indonesia is a country of first-order importance to Australia, and that was confirmed in our foreign affairs white paper. To think this country is just on our doorstep; indeed, our northern archipelago is Indonesia. It has a vibrant economy and a vibrant democracy of now over 250 million people. It's quite extraordinary. This is why they are vital to us not just on economic grounds but also on security and strategic grounds. Economically, it's why we are negotiating the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. As part of ASEAN, we are negotiating with them for a regional comprehensive economic partnership. As someone who has worked and lived in Asia for much of his professional career pre-politics, I know that there is no substitute for experience on the ground, which is why there are far more business opportunities between the two countries and opportunities for young Australians and Australian small and medium businesses to make the most of the Indonesian marketplace, and also for us to be welcoming their businesses here to Australia.

Of course, our region is not as safe as we wish it were, which is why this relationship with Indonesia cannot be seen just on economic grounds; it must also be seen on strategic grounds, which is why, as a country, we are working so closely with Indonesia to address issues such as the fight against terrorism in particular. We, as a country, proudly operate as a sovereign nation, as a liberal, open democracy in a highly integrated and uncertain political environment internationally. As such, we, probably more than any other country in the world, need to ensure that our relationships are intact. If we look at our place in the world through the conventional wisdom of any economist or any political strategist, there is no larger country sitting in such close proximity to us than Indonesia. It's why that relationship needs to continue to be built. It's why I am eager to continue to support not just the foreign minister but of course the trade minister in trying to fast-track the negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership. It's why we need to continue to work with ASEAN. While we ensure that our economy and our security ties are strengthened, let those people-to-people ties grow and let us speak their language as much as we encourage them to speak ours. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.