John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I think it is appropriate to speak to report No. 41, the 2005 report of the Australia-Indonesia Institute, because we have had a rocky relationship with Indonesia, our largest neighbour, ever since it gained its independence. Of course, the Australia-Indonesia Institute serves a purpose in trying to improve the relationship at many levels—not just at the senior political level but at many levels—and the report seeks to highlight this in many ways.

I will read from the report for a moment before I get onto some of the more pertinent issues I want to talk about. The institute’s mission statement and goals are:

To develop relations between Australia and Indonesia by promoting greater mutual understanding and by contributing to the enlargement over the longer term of the areas of contact and exchange between the people of Australia and Indonesia.

I think that that is highly laudable and entirely praiseworthy but, as I said, there have been rocky moments and there still are. One can look—and I can only go back in my time in this parliament—to the time when the people of East Timor, now Timor Leste, were seeking independence from Indonesia. That caused a great deal of concern on the part of Indonesia and, of course, a robust debate erupted between us and them about Australia’s involvement in seeking to ensure the independence of our brothers and sisters in Timor Leste.

In more recent times, we have seen the debacle with the Howard government over the refugees from West Papua and the appeasement of, or the attempt to appease, the Indonesians in that part of our relationship. Most recently, we have seen difficulties emerging over the fate of the Bali nine and the grave concerns that many of us in Australia have about the death sentences that are awaiting many of those people who, whilst they have broken the law—and I am not trying to justify that in any way—face a fate which we would not wish upon anyone in this world.

But, amidst all of that, there is good going on. There is, as I said, the work being done by the Australia-Indonesia Institute. The interim report that I was partly responsible for at the time of the independence of East Timor urged a greater contact, parliament to parliament—not just at the senior parliamentary level but at lower levels of the parliament—and that has taken place. On at least two or three occasions now, in more recent times, I have hosted Indonesian politicians and have talked about some of the very simple and basic roles that Australian politicians perform in our democratic processes. They have listened politely and they have gone away. Whether they have absorbed or taken on board some of the suggestions that have been made I am not sure and probably will never know, but one can only hope so. Nonetheless, it is an important part that we as politicians play.

I also know that a delegation of this parliament is travelling to Indonesia shortly. I trust not only that they will be warmly welcomed but also that the Indonesians will be receptive to some of the robust issues that, undoubtedly, will be raised by the people who are on that delegation. And I would think that top of the list will be the fate of the Bali nine.

I think it is a good thing that we can have a mature relationship with countries such as Indonesia. Whilst they might not like what we say, at least they should be prepared to sit and listen to the forthright expression of the views that we hold in some of these areas. I commend the report to the Senate, and seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.