While Dutton worries about fake reports of Russian planes based in Indonesia, our closest neighbour remains aggrieved about Australia’s unfair and racist treatment of Indonesians wanting to visit. Duncan Graham reports.
From Indonesia with love against Australian suspicion
Peter Dutton was clutching at straws when latching on to a report that Putin wanted to base a Russian plane in Indonesia. Accused of verballing President Prabowo, Dutton loves to stoke fear about our national security. As it turns out, Indonesia’s defence minister quickly assured his Australian counterpart that Jakarta would not allow any such Russian request.
Immigration issues also raise sweat in the Australian election debate. Some argue that the lower the numbers, the more jobs and houses for those already here. Others reckon fresh brains and brawn are needed to make the economy grow.
However, all agree encouraging international visitors is good policy if they come, spend ($33 billion last year), gawk and go. Most come from NZ, China, the UK, the US and India – nations far away. Less welcome are the folk from the globe’s fourth most populous nation, so close to Australia, it’s only time to watch one video on the plane.
All words and little action
Australian governments are hypocrites and have been for decades. Both sides say relationships with Indonesia must be given the highest priority. Their words are floss.
Tony Abbott dashed to Jakarta in 2013 to present his credentials as a new PM before visiting Washington or London, saying, “From Australia’s perspective, there should be an urgency – a real urgency – to building this relationship while there’s still so much that Australia has to give and that Indonesia is keen to receive.”
It was assumed he was referring to trade in grains and beef. What Indonesians are keen to receive are visas; in responding, we reveal our real feelings through
policies underpinned by racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, discrimination and deep-down distrust.
Deputy PM Richard Marles isn’t so lugubrious. At last year’s signing of a ‘defence cooperation agreement’ in Canberra, he told the future Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, “Australia and Indonesia, as the closest of neighbours, have a shared destiny. But from this moment forth, that destiny is very much defined by deep strategic trust.”
The adjective used was not ‘personal’ but ‘strategic’, a term hijacked by the military.
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A real imbalance
This story is riddled with contradictions. Almost 1.4 million Ozzies visited Indonesia in 2024, but the Australian Embassy in Jakarta only “processes around 60,000 visas each year for Indonesians planning a holiday or short stay in Australia.”
That’s an imbalance of 23 to one, though this data doesn’t snare those who come to work or study.
The number of Okkers heading for Kuta’s beer and bikes is so great that they’re clearly unfrightened of their Balinese Hindu hosts despite being Indonesian citizens. This conflicts with polling by the Lowy Institute showing,
Australian attitudes towards Indonesia have been – at best – lukewarm. And at worst, they betray a lurking suspicion.
Those values linger in Australian Immigration’s 20th-century groupthink and feed their directives.
Here’s proof of the wariness: Immigration rules let citizens of 50 mainly European states – including Croatia and Slovenia – get a free visitor visa and stay for up to three months. Those from Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore can apply online at a cost of $20. Indonesians aren’t eligible. They have to fill in a 17-page form and pay $195 per person, so a holiday for four adds $780 to their air and hotel costs. Even local wives of Australian expats wanting to visit family in Australia have to go through the same process, which can take weeks.
Australians get a tourist visa online or on arrival for $50.
That doesn’t build a relationship – it ensures one doesn’t thrive. Fewer Australians are now learning Indonesian than in the last century, so the next generation will know even less about the adjacent residents, their values and culture.
So, no floodgates will open for the swarthy-skinned and religiously different, frequently slandered by coarse cartoon cliches in the right-wing media. Nor will many Indonesians overstay; that record is held by Malaysians, followed by citizens of China, UK, the US, India and the Pacific Islands.
Holiday workers visa
The adventurous, determined and well-off usually find working and travelling around Australia with a working holiday (“backpacker”) visa can expand their horizons, provided they avoid exploiting employers – but few Indonesians get the chance.
First, the $650 fee is almost out of reach for the average Indonesian youngster; that’s more than a month’s earnings in a regional head office, which can be double the wage for someone in a small town.
There is also a cap on Indonesian applicants of 4,264 places, needing a tertiary education, having functional English, access to $5,000, plus getting approval from Indonesian Immigration Dept adds to the impediments.
Government permission isn’t required for UK and EU backpackers to head south, and there’s no cap imposed on those nations by Australia, just the overall annual quota.
The issue of fees and discrimination was raised in a 2023 ‘position paper’ by the Perth-based Indonesia Institute, calling for reform, claiming:
“Indonesia will overtake the Australian economy in market value by 2030. However, efforts to build trade and investment ties with this enormous and growing economy are undermined by Australia’s visa regime.
“Indonesian visa applicants are placed in a higher risk category than smaller ASEAN economies.
“This higher threshold will have long-term, serious negative repercussions for Australia: we will not be able to… build trust levels between our two countries, or drive social, political, economic and education ties.”
The paper was widely distributed to politicians. It had little impact, suggesting that MPs know their electorates remain wary of Indonesia, as the Lowy Institute discovered. Is the fear factor terrorism and Islam? Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country, but the faith is also dominant in Malaysia and Brunei, where it’s practised far more stringently.
The terror threat
Indonesia has been getting tough on terrorism since the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was bombed more than 20 years ago. On an international NGO’s Terrorism Index Score, with 0 as a country with the highest risk (Burkina Faso), Indonesia ranks at position 30, safer than Germany and Thailand. Australia scores 46.
The Lowy report suggests “building trust and confidence will also require deepening cultural familiarity and understanding at the people level.” The rules could be changed without reference to Parliament or becoming an issue in the election campaign. The impact would be significant.
Gough Whitlam got rid of White Australia in 1973, but not all the underpinning attitudes. It’s time to update, to erase the discriminatory residuals and create a Fair Australia. Paul Keating’s 1994 claim that “No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia” might then carry some truth and dispel the ill repute.
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Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia.