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Red-tape still a barrier to Australia-Indonesia ties
Yet here is the paradox: No two countries in the region need each other like Indonesia and Australia. Regional security, trade and tourism are a just a few core reasons why we need a mutually close and trusting.
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Quite a view: The Gold Coast skyline as seen from the Skypoint observation deck on top of the Q1 building. (JP/Irawaty Wardany)
O
ver many years much has been said and written about the importance of Australia’s relationship with its large and near neighbor, Indonesia.
Australia’s former prime ministers also were clear about the importance of being good neighbors: Paul Keating said, “Indonesia is our most important relationship.” Tony Abbott famously talked about, “More Indonesia and less Geneva.” NGOs, bureaucrats and academics talk continuously about the need to “get more ballast into the bilateral relationship,” and the Indonesia-Australia Business Council openly states that trade and business between our two countries is “underdone.”
Yet, despite all the cliché’s and hand-shaking between politicians and senior bureaucrats, the bilateral relationship struggles to progress to become deeper and more substantial. Why?
At the risk of over simplifying the state of this critical relationship between Indonesia and Australia — which at senior political level is actually quite warm at present — our two countries are very different.
