SBY addresses Australian Parliament

[Toucha]

Yudhoyono tackles 'age-old stereotypes' March 10, 2010 - 4:09PM

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addresses a special sitting of the Australian Parliament. Photo: Andrew Meares
Indonesia's partnership with Australia is now "solid and strong", but challenges remain, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told Parliament today.

Dr Yudhoyono, addressing a joint meeting of both houses of Parliament in Canberra, said there still needed to be a change in the mindset of some Indonesians and Australians.

"The most persistent problem in our relation is the persistence of age-old stereotypes ... that depicts the other side in a bad light," he said.

"There are Australians who still see Indonesia as a authoritarian country or a military dictatorship or as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, or even as an expansionist power."

On the other hand some Indonesians remained afflicted by "Australia-phobia".

"[There are] those who believe that the notion of White Australia still persists; that Australia harbours ill-intention towards Indonesia."

Dr Yudhoyono said more work was needed to strengthen economic ties between Indonesia and Australia.

Indonesia had a GDP of $US514 billion, the third highest growth of G20 nations, a population of 240 million, a growing middle class and rich natural resources, he said.

Meanwhile, Australia, a developed nation, had the 18th largest economy in the world, with high-level corporate governance and a GDP of $US920 billion.

‘‘These impressive statistics need to be reflected in our partnership,’’ Dr Yudhoyono said.

He said Australia was the 12th highest investor in Indonesia, with interests in 26 projects worth $US79 million in 2009.

‘‘We need to do better to harness these economic benefits, we need to encourage our private sector to do more business with one another,’’ he said.

Dr Yudhoyono said there had been 69 ministerial visits between the two nations since the Rudd government came to office.

‘‘That is an impressive number, we must sustain this good momentum.’’

He announced a new annual leaders retreat that will take place alternately between the countries.

Indonesia’s and Australia’s foreign and defence ministers will also meet annually.

‘‘I am sure that this new arrangement will further cement Indonesia-Australia relations and enhance trust between us.’’

Dr Yudhoyono said legislation would soon be introduced to the Indonesian Parliament that would make people smuggling a criminal offence that would carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Both Australia and Indonesia agreed that people smuggling was a regional problem, he said.

‘‘Indonesia and Australia believe in the authority of the Bali process, which recognises that people smuggling is a regional problem that requires a regional solution involving the origin, transit and destination countries to work together.’’

An agreement between the countries to establish a framework for greater co-operation on tackling people smuggling would ensure future cases could be handled in a ‘‘predictable and co-ordinated way’’.

Dr Yudhoyono said the great challenge for Indonesia and Australia was how to respond to issues such as terrorism, natural disasters, people smuggling and drug traffickers.

Infectious diseases, the world financial crisis and climate change were also new, non-traditional threats that he said the countries had to tackle.

‘‘The unique part of the Australia, Indonesia partnership in the 21st century is how we cover it beyond a bilateral context, to tackle issues of global significance,’’ he said.

‘‘I belive that Indonesia and Australia are on the same page on the need to foster a more democratic world order, to reflect the changing global political and economic landscape.’’

He was heartened the two nations both valued multilateral relations and believed in the need to reform the United Nations system.

Dr Yudhoyono called for a new spirit of geopolitical and geoeconomic co-operation between Australia and Indonesia.

Indonesia remained relentless in its fight against terrorism, Dr Yudhoyono said.

"In recent weeks we were able to disrupt terrorist cells operating and training in Aceh and in other places in Indonesia," he said.

"We will continue to hunt them down and do all we can to prevent them from harming our people."

On climate change, the President said he and Mr Rudd had worked closely together since the UN conference in Bali two years ago.

Both leaders attended the Copenhagen summit in December.

"I appreciate the opportunity to work constructively on the Indonesia-Australia forest carbon partnership," he said, adding acknowledgement for Australia's support for Indonesia's initiative of forming the Group of 11 tropical foreign nations or F11.

The group had contributed greatly to the conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests which he labelled "the lungs of the earth".

Dr Yudhoyono said he was grateful also to the Australian government for supporting the Bali Democracy Forum, which was launched in September 2008, the only intergovernmental forum in Asia on the issue of democracy.

Both nations were working closely together towards the attainment of a world free of nuclear weapons.

"With efforts like these, perhaps in our lifetime we will no longer have to fear the possible tragedy of nuclear holocaust," he said.

Parliamentarians gave the President a standing ovation after his speech.

Later Prime Minister Kevin Rudd introduced Dr Yudhoyono to his front bench, Mr Abbott, his deputy and former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Before leaving the lower house chamber, the President was also introduced to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown and his deputy Christine Milne.

Earlier, Mr Rudd welcomed Dr Yudhoyono as the President of a neighbour, friend and a member of the family of democracies.

‘‘We are neighbours by circumstance but we are friends because we have chosen to be friends,’’ Mr Rudd said.

‘‘Now our relationship enters into a new phase when together we work in the great institutions of our region and the world to build a better region and to build a better world.’’

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott supported Mr Rudd’s remarks.

But he also took a veiled swipe at federal Labor over its border protection policy.

‘‘We have worked together [with Indonesia] to end people smuggling since 2001,’’ Mr Abbott told Parliament.

‘‘We have worked to end people smuggling before, it worked when we worked together before, people smuggling has started again and we can stop it again provided it’s done co-operatively ... with the right policies in place here in Australia.’’


AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/national/yudhoyon ... -pyjr.html

[Toucha]

Video of SBY's address to parliament.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/03/10/2842132.htm

[Toucha]

Fraser slams Aust approach to asylum seekers
Posted 1 hour 19 minutes ago
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... ion=justin


Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser says the problems of people smuggling and asylum seekers cannot be solved in boat-by-boat negotiations with Indonesia.

He says Australia has turned backwards on dealing with asylum seekers, with both sides of politics trying to prove their toughness in an unseemly debate that resonates around the world.

Mr Fraser told a forum in Sydney that any deal with Indonesia would not work without a wider agreement with countries that will accept refugees.

"It worked in relation to Indochina and Vietnam because both Malaysia and Indonesia knew that not only Australia, but Canada and America in particular, were going to take a very large number of people from the detention centres," he said.

"I haven't seen any sign that the Government is trying to negotiate that wider agreement."

[anjing_hitam]

shameful

[Toucha]

‘‘We are neighbours by circumstance but we are friends because we have chosen to be friends,’’ Mr Rudd said.

And friends keep secrets. Right? So therefore the agreement between Indonesia and Australia is 'private'. Right?

So we have a totally NON-transparent government in Australia.

[anjing_hitam]

Fair-Dinkum!

[Toucha]

Another one I just happened to come across - looking for something else as usual:

Malcolm Fraser the unsung hero of humane refugee policy
Mike Steketee From: The Australian January 02, 2010 12:00AM

THERE are 22 million surreal festive season stories in the naked Australian continent. This is one of them.

WATCHING politics at close hand creates the impression of forward motion: governments working through issues one after the other, Kevin Rudd at hand to tick off the list.

Trawling through 30-year-old cabinet papers leaves a different image: more like going around in circles or running on the spot. Some matters just seem too hard for politics to resolve.

Such as nuclear waste, which the Fraser cabinet tackled in 1979 by deciding there was an urgent need for a long-term disposal facility for which we are still waiting. Such as a second Sydney airport, the need for which was being debated in the 1960s and a decision on which finally was made in the 80s, only to be unmade in the noughties with the recent decision to scrap the site at Badgerys Creek.

Some issues defy resolution. With indigenous unemployment at 40 per cent and rising, the Fraser government decided in 1979 to encourage employers to hire indigenous people. So that's where Rudd got the idea.

Then there are the issues that arise with seasonal regularity. Such as refugees. Ministers in Malcolm Fraser's cabinet discussing how to cope with boatloads of Vietnamese refugees ran through the same questions as the Keating, Howard and Rudd cabinets subsequently.

How could they square the government's obligations as a signatory to the UN refugee convention with the reaction from Australians to large numbers of people arriving from Asia? How could they deter people coming to Australia by boat, given the paranoia this stirs up among Australians about the security of our borders?

The Fraser cabinet considered some options that sound familiar: turning the boats back, offshore processing, a detention centre in Australia and temporary visas. The difference was Fraser rejected them all, while the Keating government pioneered the use of detention centres in remote areas and the Howard government adopted the rest.

The Fraser government did introduce legislation to outlaw people smuggling but applied it for only a year so as, in the words of immigration minister Michael MacKellar, to "provide flexibility and help defuse public criticism". People smugglers were not demonised as "the lowest form of human life", to use Rudd's description. Indeed, many were recognised as saving lives.

The Fraser government also looked for an Indonesian solution, offering the UN High Commissioner for Refugees $250,000 towards the cost of a holding centre.

The biggest difference between then and later was one of scale. If we think we have a problem now, it looks trivial beside the issues confronting Canberra in 1979. "In my view, this was the only real refugee crisis we have faced," says Mary Crock, professor of public law at the University of Sydney and a specialist on immigration law.

The 1979 cabinet papers bear her out. Andrew Peacock as foreign affairs minister warned of "a regional crisis of major dimensions", not to mention the danger of "very serious strains on the unity and character of Australian society" given traditional Australian fears about the yellow peril.

The numbers leaving Vietnam by boat reached 55,000 in May. There were predictions of up to three million fleeing Indochina. "Between 100,000 and 150,000 boat refugees could arrive in Australia over the next few years," Peacock said in a memorandum for cabinet.

Just imagine if that had actually happened, given the fuss we have made over the fewer than 2500 who have arrived by boat in the past year. Yet the Fraser government took almost 250,000 Vietnamese as refugees and immigrants.

Most were processed by Australian officials offshore, in holding centres in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, and then flown to Australia. They were no different from the 2029 Vietnamese who arrived by boat between 1975 and 1979 and were accepted as refugees, but they were less visible and satisfied Australian concerns about not turning up uninvited.

The seriousness of the crisis, including the horrific estimates that up to 70 per cent of those fleeing were perishing at sea, helped drive measures to staunch the flow, with Southeast Asian countries agreeing not to push boats back to sea, Western countries agreeing to process them overseas and Vietnam eventually agreeing to stop forcing people to leave.

That so many came to Australia without a big controversy seems remarkable in hindsight. Crock argues the courage of Fraser on this issue has been overlooked. "This is a program that literally changed the face of Australia," she says. Her point is that it was the first real test of the abolition of the White Australia policy.

Liberals often argue it was abandoned in the 60s under Menzies. "Absolute, arrant nonsense," says Crock, who says there was a colour bar until the election of Whitlam. "Up until 1972, we had the White Australia Policy for everybody except a narrow band of close family members."

It was Fraser who gave practical effect to the implementation by the Whitlam government of this latter policy by initiating the largest influx of people from Asia into Australia since the gold rush, people who in most cases have made model citizens. He did so in the face of hostile public opinion (according to a Morgan Gallup poll 61 per cent wanted to limit the refugee intake and 28 per cent wanted to stop it) and initial Labor Party opposition. Gough Whitlam told colleagues following the fall of Saigon in 1975, that "I'm not having hundreds of f . . king Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their political and religious hatreds."

In opposition under the Fraser government, Whitlam supported the policy after Vietnam expelled mainly ethnic Chinese citizens and following a concerted effort by Fraser and immigration minister Ian Macphee, MacKellar's successor, to achieve a bipartisan policy. This extended to the trade unions, whose leaders such as Bob Hawke had opposed accepting early Vietnamese boat arrivals.

Fraser tells Inquirer he took the attitude that the White Australia Policy had been killed off by Menzies' immigration minister Hubert Oppenheimer, although he acknowledges it was Whitlam who removed "the legal remnants". He adds: "One mistake I made in politics was to make a speech, I think in 1980, in which I said these battles have been won for all time. As it turned out, you only needed the redneck arguments to be put for the redneck nerve to be scratched and fears aroused. Then you realise that each generation has to fight the battle."

A few factors worked in Fraser's favour. One was the sentiment that Australia had a moral obligation to help the victims of a war in which we had fought. It was an argument he put forcefully, together with his admiration for the refugees. "If you embrace a positive view and embrace the courage of the people who are prepared to try and get a better life for themselves and their families, I think the political pressure starts to diminish," he says.

The contrast, of course, is with the Howard government, which pandered to the fear following 9/11 that Iraqis and Afghans fleeing by boat included terrorists (ASIO did not reject a single person on these grounds). Yet Australia's moral obligation was as strong as that following the Vietnam war: the refugees were fleeing Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, who the Howard government thought sufficiently reprehensible to wage war against. But the government never put the argument.

The key factor in resolving the issue in the 70s was an international agreement that stemmed the flow from Vietnam but allowed large numbers of refugees to go to Western countries. Such co-operation, combined with humane treatment of asylum-seekers, is the best way to cut boat arrivals.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/op ... 5815259755