WE LOVE YOU NEIGHBOUR - BUT WE CAN'T SHOW IT

Murray Hunter


WE LOVE YOU NEIGHBOUR - BUT WE CAN'T SHOW IT

Duncan Graham
Apr 18, 2025






Got $195? Good, that's the first step

Immigration issues raise sweat in the election debate, with some arguing 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. We greeted eight million with quarantine dogs in 2024. Most, who’d rather see koalas, 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 time to watch only one video on the plane.

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.

This story is riddled with contradictions. Almost 1.4 million Ozzies visited Indonesia in 2024, but the Australian Embassy in Jakarta only “processes more than 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 loiter 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.

Asian nationals are treated inequitably. Those from Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore can apply online - cost $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.

That doesn’t build a relationship – it ensures one doesn’t thrive. Fewer Australians are now learning Indonesian than in last century so the next generation will know even less about the adjacent residents, their values and culture.

The benefits of youth backpacking overseas in building character and erasing xenophobia have been studied, but leaving Mum and Dad as a teen to seek your way is more European culture than Indonesian where homesickness is commonplace.

Uber users in the big cities get to polish their geography through meeting drivers from around the world – though rarely from the Archipelago.

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: the record is held by Malaysians, followed by citizens of China, UK, the US, India and the Pacific Islands.

The adventurous, determined and well-off usually find working and travelling around Australia can expand their horizons providing they avoid exploiting employers – but few Indonesians get the chance.

The $650 fee is almost out of reach for the average youngster; that’s more than a month’s earnings in a regional head office, double the wage in a small town.

A cap on the applicants of 4,264 places, needing a tertiary education, having functional English, access to $5,000 plus getting approval from Indonesian Immigration adds to the impediments.

Government permission isn’t required for UK and EU backpackers to head south, and there’s no cap.

The average annual salary in Indonesia is reportedly around $15,000. In Britain, it’s $78,000.

The issue of fees and discrimination was raised in a 2023 ‘position paper’ by the Perth-based Indonesia Institute called 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.

Indonesia has been getting tough on terrorism since the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was bombed more than 20 years ago. The US State Department reported:

“Indonesia continued efforts to detect, disrupt, degrade, and deny safe haven for terrorist groups operating within its borders … (Government and Islamic) schools and universities have programmes intended to prevent student radicalization.”

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.

First published in Michael West Media 17 April 2025: https://michaelwest.com.au/russian-planes-and-indonesians-unwelcome-to-australia/