OZ nominates Moriarty to replace Farmer

The Australian government has nominated Greg Moriarty to replace Bill Farmer, who officially ended his term as Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia last month.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Stephen Smith announced the nomination on Sunday, describing Moriarty as a “first-class” ambassador, as reported by Australian media.

“As is the case with all foreign ambassadors in Indonesia, Mr. Moriarty’s appointment will be subject to agreement from the government of Indonesia. This process includes consideration by Indonesia’s Parliament,” Smith said.

Legislator Kemal Stambul said the House had not received a request from the Indonesian government for House approval of the nomination as of Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia had received an official notification of the nomination from the Australian government but had not yet sent an official request to House for consideration.

Teuku said that the State Secretariat would deliver an official consideration request to the House.

Moriarty, a political counselor at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in late 1990s and Australia’s former  ambassador to Iran, is a senior officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has been First Assistant Secretary of the Consular, Public Diplomacy and Parliamentary Affairs Division since April 2009.

Moriarty previously served in Papua New Guinea as a Senior Negotiator with the Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville. He studied Indonesian and the Tok Pisin language of Papua New Guinea and has a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours from the University of Western Australia and a Master’s Degree in Strategic and Defense Studies from the Australian National University.

The nomination of Moriarty was praised by experts who said that his “deep knowledge of Indonesia” would help maintain the bilateral relationship.

“He has a big circle of friends, is friendly and seriously tries to understand the situation in Indonesia,” former Indonesian ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian said Tuesday.

“He also realizes the importance of [maintaining] the Indonesian-Australian bilateral relationship for stability in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific.”

A University of Indonesia international relations expert Hariyadi Wirawan said the nomination of Moriarty would help Australia cooperate with Indonesia on “sensitive issues”, such as illegal immigrants.

He is married with two children.