Given all the speculation and commentary about the two boats with Tamil asylum seekers aboard currently in Indonesia, I thought it would be helpful to publish some basic facts about the people. This information comes from Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne, a person I've found to very reliable on these sorts of things - certainly far more so than anonymous, speculative or presumptive ...
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 ...
A leaking oil rig off the north-western coast of Australia has been spewing oil into the marine environment for over two months. Whilst there has been intermittent publicity about the ongoing oil spill, it certainly hasn’t galvanised wide-scale public concern in Australia. I have to confess that, like Northern Territory based blogger Bob Gosford, I am perplexed as to why this massive oil spill does not appear to have generated ...
I’ve http://andrewbartlett.com/?cat=27 written on this blog about Indonesia quite a few times over the years, and had a couple of brief visits to Jakarta and once to Aceh. I’ve also tried to follow events in that country and speak with Indonesians – delegations and individuals – who are visiting Australia. The elections held in Indonesia over the course of this year have been very important to Australia and our ...
The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 seems a very long time ago. I was fortunate to make a brief visit to Banda Aceh in mid-2005, which I wrote about here and here. Some parts of that visit I’ll never forget. This story from last weekend’s Jakarta Post (found through Breakfast Politics) gives a snapshot of the reporter’s brief visit to the area. There is still rebuilding work being done, but as the ...
The death of former Indonesian President Suharto has naturally provided many articles examining his legacy. Most note the major economic expansion which occurred in Indonesia during his time in power, including a relative decline in overall poverty, whilst making some mention about his “less than desirable” record on human rights (to quote Alexander Downer). Without in any way ignoring the great difficulties faced in maintaining social stability in a ...
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 ...
Back in February, I wrote about the inquiry by the Parliament's Treaties Committee into Australia's new security agreement with Indonesia. I've long been vocal about my concerns with human rights abuses in West Papua, but I have also tried to emphasise and encourage some of the major democratic advances Indonesia has made in recent years. The Committee tabled its report in the Parliament today. Not surprisingly, it ...
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 ...
Media reports have stated that my name is on an “Indonesian intelligence agency watch list” in support of independence for West Papua. This report on the ABC Asia Pacific website says it is an 'enemies list' of prominent Australians and organisations regarded as being supporters of Papuan Independence. However, this story on ABC radio said “a briefing note prepared for an Indonesian delegation by the intelligence agency, BIN, names high-profile ...
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 ...
A significant step forward in reducing the harm of tobacco smoking has occurred with the decision by House of Commons in London to ban smoking in all enclosed public spaces in England. This approach was more hardline than what was originally proposed by the UK government, and interestingly was made the subject of a free (or conscience) vote for MPs. Perhaps an even more significant development in the battle ...
Some more reports from Christmas Island and West Papua that I've received through emails. The accuracy cannot be independently verified.
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 ...
As mentioned below, the Senate devoted most of Tuesday to a condolence debate on the Bali bombings. It isn't a good idea to get stridently political too close to such a traumatic event. However, I do find it a bit irritating when I hear gratuitous demands of the Indonesian government that they ban Jemaah Islamiah. Indeed, in yet another example of why I find the current political environment soooo ...
One aspect of the controversies surrounding the culture of the Department of Immigration Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) that I haven’t seen mentioned is how it reflects on the sort of deal indigenous Australians are getting. The second ‘I’ in DIMIA stands for Indigenous, and the recently removed Secretary of the Department, Bill Farmer, oversaw the whole Department, not just the immigration side of it. It doesn’t give ...
Just before leaving Aceh yesterday, our delegation was told we would probably be able to meet in the morning with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It would be a good finish to a visit focused on the enormous human impacts of the tsunami and earthquakes in the region. The twin messages I got from my time in Aceh (and from meeting Acehnese politicians) was the need for ...
Yesterday a petition was presented to the Indonesian Foreign Minister urging their Government to oppose Burma (also known as Myanmar) taking up its turn to lead ASEAN, or boycott all ASEAN forums under Burma's leadership unless there are immediate democratic reforms implemented by the Burmese military junta. The petition was signed by 35 of the 48 members of the Indonesian House of Representatives Commission 1 (similar to our ...
We left Jakarta at 6.30 this morning on the Government jet to Banda Aceh. It is further away from Jakarta than I expected - over 1800 kilometres - and is actually further west than Vietnam and Thailand and lies well north of the Equator. Accompanying us was Dr Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who is the Director of the new Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Executing Agency for Aceh and Nias (BBR). This Agency ...
It has been a very full day in Jakarta for the delegation I am travelling with. After a briefing of an hour or so last night from Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia and some Embassy staff, we had a dinner with nine members of the House of Representatives' Australia-Indonesia Cooperation Group, from a range of different parties. It was informal, but informative. This morning we had a meeting for over ...
Next,
Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don’t normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this occasion. You can have a listen to it by clicking on this link.
(0)Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today. But I would also say that it isn’t any secret that I haven’t agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders debate even if it had been made by Steve Fielding:
“What we’re seeing now between the two leaders is an absolute farce and people everywhere are rolling their eyes at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard not having the maturity to get together to agree to the series of debates which would have enlightened the electorate,“It is a joke and a sad reflection on the optic and image driven nature of political media coverage in Australia. A couple of weeks ago, there was a three way debate at the National Press Club on important ICT issues such as internet filtering, broadband and wider communications policy. More... (6)
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing – and that’s before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal. This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal is that there is the possibility it may be stopped, or seriously curtailed, by the Obama administration, which would be a signal of a positive shift on this issue.
(2)Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I’ve done, plus an online one
More... (1)As I noted in my previous post, this week’s Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support – the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens results. I’ve written a piece expanding on this, and how the party might approach the challenges ahead, at The Drum/Unleashed on the ABC’s site – which you can read by clicking on this link.
(0)Contention over Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each “side” is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve. I’ve just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC’s website. It’s fairly long, so they published it in two parts – the first part is at this link and the second part is at this one. I should emphasise that the article reflects my personal views, and is not a formal view of the Greens, nor of ANTaR Queensland, who I am also involved with.
(18)Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban sounds, with Brisbane’s The Optimen also launching their second album “The Out of Money Experience” as part of the same event. Even though there is a steady stream of musical offerings in Brisbane, a double album launch of this magnitude doesn’t come along every day of the week, so I’ll dedicate a half hour or so to exploring not just the words and sounds of Choose Mics, but getting a broader overview from them of the hip hop related scenes locally and nationally.
More... (2)Disclaimer: The inclusion of a blog or website in this list should not be taken as an endorsement of its contents by me.
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