A

ustralian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had to admit on Thursday that he had made a mistake for winking and smiling during a radio talk show with his host while listening to a complaint on his welfare cuts from a woman working on a phone sex line. But in the eyes of many Indonesians, the PM is not averse to being '€œinsensitive'€.

According to Bloomberg news agency, the former amateur boxer was shown on national television winking and similing after a caller, who described herself as a 67-year-old pensioner with a chronic health condition,
said she had been forced to work on an adult sex line to pay her bills.

Thousands of Australians have protested his plans to cut spending and increase taxes, which also go against his own campaign pledges.

The conservative leader won a landslide election victory against the Labor Party'€™s Kevin Rudd just eight months ago in September. Voters were spellbound by his pledge to lead '€œa government that says what it means, and means what it says'€, including much better welfare, more generous medicare and a tax policy that would not hurt the general populace.

Voters were also lured by his determination to take tough measures against boat people from troubled countries, who had become a serious challenge for Australia. Abbott was confident that his zero-tolerance policy against Indonesia, which many Australians believed was primarily responsible for the influx of unwanted asylum seekers to their shores, would be a very effective measure to block the asylum seekers. The policy has indeed drastically reduced the human flow but at a cost to other nations, including Indonesia.

If elections were held today, some reports say, the Labor Party leader, Bill Shorten, would easily win, barely a year after voters decided to end the party'€™s six years in power.

Relations between Indonesia and Australia quickly deteoriated after Abbott came to power, as he demonstrated he was going to be much tougher with his neighbor than the Labor Party had been. In so doing, he is perceived by many Indonesians to be extremely arrogant.

If his coalition holds onto power, Abbott will soon have to deal with our new leader, either Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo or Prabowo Subianto. It is unlikely that he will face such a friendly and accomodating president to Australia as the incumbent, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Winking and smiling while listening to Indonesia'€™s complaints will cost him diplomatically.