Bartlett's Blog

I wrote a piece recently about the new Cabinet of the Indonesian government, including their new Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa who gained his PhD at the Australian National University.  As I’ve written a number of times, Indonesia has made very impressive progress in a range of areas in recent years.  I believe one of their biggest unaddressed challenges is West Papua, which is an issue with both internal ...

With all the major parties focussing so heavily on economic matters once again, it can be easy to forget that there are other equally important things which also deserve major political attention. I tried campaigning on a few of these last week, albeit with not a great deal of success.

Tonight I am introducing the public lecture and book signing for Dr Clinton Fernandes, author of the recently released, Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia and the future of West Papua. I've written many times, see here , about West Papua, Indonesia and the fraught relationship with Australia and it is pleasing to see an account that outlines the history of West Papua history from colonial times to the modern day ...

Late last year, a security cooperation agreement between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia was signed on the Indonesian island of Lombok. As with all international agreements, this one, which has already picked up the colloquial title of the Lombok Agreement, is being examined by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The Committee is still receiving submissions. You can read the ones which have been made public to ...

News has just come through that the 43rd and final asylum seeker who arrived from West Papua in January has had his refugee claim approved by the Refugee Review Tribunal. You could not get a simpler example of why there has to be an independent mechanism to review decisions by the government to refuse refugee claims. This is precisely what asylum seekers have not had when they have ...

The Committee hearing into the Government's new anti-refugee legislation is being held today in Canberra. The legislation is called the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006. I'm not sure who an 'undesignated unauthorised arrival' might be, but perhaps I'll be able to find out from the Immigration Department when they appear before us. The Bills Digest produced by the Parliamentary Library which explains the ...

The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, has written an extraordinary piece for The Australian newspaper (which unfortunately does not appear to be online). Amazingly, after starting off saying “there needs to be increased understanding of our protection visa obligations,” she then goes on to say that “it is the Government’s strong preference that protection is not offered in Australia to Papuan separatists” – a statement which is a blatant ...

This post contains links to a few more articles providing background on the West Papua issue. Some of them were provided in comments on previous posts, but I know not everyone follows the comments threads on these posts, so I thought I'd re-present them here. Also, for people in Melbourne on the night of Thursday 13th April (not Wednesday 12th as previously posted here), there is ...

It is now 2 months since 43 asylum seekers from West Papua arrived in Far North Queensland. They were whisked away to our nation’s most remote, expensive and rudimentary detention centre on Christmas Island, and still await news on the result of their claims. The changes announced by the Prime Minster last June require an initial decision on an application within 3 months, so there should be news ...

Some more reports from Christmas Island and West Papua that I've received through emails. The accuracy cannot be independently verified.

I thought there would be a lot of mentions of the West Papuan asylum seekers on blogs around the place, but I haven't been able to find much. However, following on from my previous post, I have been receiving emails with some information about what is happening with the the asylum seekers upon their arrival on Christmas Island, and also of some events in West Papua. ...

The arrival in Australia of 43 asylums seekers from West Papua not only provides a test of whether there has been any substantive culture change in the Immigration Department, it also provides the best prospect for a long time of some significant public attention being paid to what is happening in West Papua. Despite some extreme control measures put in place by DIMIA to prevent photographs or contact with ...

Like many people, I think Schapelle Corby has had a raw deal. I also think comments along the way from Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty have not been helpful and the assistance provided by the Australian Government has been fairly lame. However, I don't see how public attacks or antagonism towards Indonesia about the trial are going to help her at all (or many innocent Indonesians). If anything, ...

Following on from my long piece on self-determination and the situation facing the Kurdish people, I thought it appropriate to briefly emphasise a situation a bit closer to home with the West Papuans. I regularly point to East Timor as an example where their aspiration for a simple act of self-determination appeared to be an impossible dream, yet persistence and determination kept it alive and freedom was eventually achieved. This ...