Indonesia
AUSTRALIA needs to overhaul its travel warning system or end up looking like the boy who cried wolf.

We found out last week that 567,000 Australians visited our neighbour Indonesia last year.
This means more than half a million Australians either didn’t know about - or, more likely, happily ignored - the Australian Government’s travel warnings when they flew off to Bali for a week of sun, surf, beer, braiding, tattoos and tummy upsets.
Continue reading "Our travel warning system is the boy who cried wolf" »
The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is due to visit Australia in early March and will be addressing both houses of Parliament.

It’s not that common to have a foreign leader address the Australian Parliament but it will be repeated later in March when the US President Barack Obama is expected to do the same.
Australia-Indonesia relations are always complex. At the leadership and government level they remain strong as the Howard Government had left them, despite frustrations in official Indonesian ranks over the Rudd Government’s handling of the Oceanic Viking saga and the ongoing issue of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers that remain in limbo off a West Java port.
Continue reading "Our role in defending democracy in Indonesia" »
Latest 2 of 15 comments
View all comments-
Dan says:
But how would the killing of a small number of Australains by extremists prove that an entire country hates us?! Read more »
-
Dan says:
I don’t need to learn to read to know that you’re a fanatic. Read more »
Marty Natalegawa is a consummate diplomat. The Indonesian Foreign Minister is also his country’s former representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the UK.

At the age of 46 he has done more than most top diplomats do in an entire career. Now he’s the Foreign Minister.
On Tuesday this week I interviewed Marty Natelagawa in his Jakarta offices. In a long line of difficult issues between Australia and Indonesia, people smuggling has been the most awkward in recent months, so of course I had to begin our discussion on just that.
Continue reading "This man may be our best ally against people smugglers" »
Latest 2 of 15 comments
View all comments-
Anjuli says:
I have watched the decline of society in the last 40 years of being in Australia where once we had law and order now we are slowly getting to an unlawful one .It seems the more people we get the more violent crime. Also infrastructure has not kept up with… Read more »
-
boat people? says:
The ‘boat people’ are but a few. What about the 1000’s of others that do not come view a boat that fine their way on our land. Funny how they have all the legal credentials, that are illegal by-the-way by the way. There are of our Australian people and in… Read more »
She sits in a prison, thousands of kilometres away from her family and friends. She doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t think much of the food that’s served up to her.

Her only crime was to try and bring drugs into a foreign country to make a bit of money and now she is stuck in a foreign jail for what must seem like an eternity.
How could you not feel sympathy for her? Easy. Her name isn’t Schapelle Corby.
Continue reading "How many other Schapelle Corbys are there?" »
Latest 2 of 55 comments
View all comments-
DG (Formerly S) says:
@Lee - Failure to catch a criminal does not make “Australian law enforcement” responsible for the choice of a person to smuggle drugs out of the country. Where she got the drugs is irrelevant in the circumstances. She has been convicted (as I understand it) for taking the drugs into… Read more »
-
Lee says:
S You seem to forget the drugs where taken from Australia in your backward logic that would make at fault Australian law inforcement at fault as she walked onto a plan with a boggie board full of dope Read more »
Australian travel journalist Natasha Dragun lives down the road from the Ritz and Marriot hotels in Jakarta. She filed this post for The Punch on the bombings today.
I’ve lived in Jakarta for about 15 months (I moved here having spent 5 years in Beijing, and now work for a travel magazine based in Jakarta). I’ve always felt extremely safe here.

In fact, I’ve felt safer here than when I lived in Melbourne. Everyone here is always so friendly and lovely.
I’ve never been scared for my safety – even during the elections, or the executions of the Bali bombers… my family and friends were more worried than I was.
The security at both hotels (the Marriott and Ritz) is extremely tight, so I just don’t understand how the bombs got in.
Continue reading "“I heard the second one go off”: post from Jakarta" »
Latest 2 of 11 comments
View all comments-
Amanda says:
Thanks for your story Natasha. I too am a woman and have lived and worked in Jakarta for 10 years and have never felt any less safe here on a daily basis than I did in Australia. I have many Indonesian friends who were some of the first people to… Read more »
-
Yanjune says:
Thanks for your story Natasha. Indeed, it is not about a country or the people or a particular religion. It is simply a terrorist matter and could happen in anywhere. Unfortunately it happened in Jakarta, Indonesia. Read more »
The sole remaining daily reminder in Australia of the existence of Schapelle Corby is the plastic luggage-wrapping service at our international airports.

More than four years after her conviction on drug smuggling charges - when Corby was the only story in Australia, the only topic of discussion at the pub, at barbecues, in the office tea room - the one thing that reminds us that she even exists is the roll of industrial cling-film in our departure lounges, so you can make sure your baggage leaves our shores and arrives overseas without 4.2kg of cannabis in it.
As she prepares to celebrate her 32nd birthday tomorrow - her fifth inside Bali’s Kerobokan jail - prison authorites let Schapelle have her hair cut and coloured by a professional hairdresser, saying they hoped it would cheer her up as she continues to fight with severe depression.
Her illness may be fuelled by the knowledge that almost all of her countrymen have pretty much forgotten about her - and that unlike in 2005, when most Australians disputed her guilt, public opinion appears to have swung the other way, not just against her but members of her family.
Continue reading "How Australia forgot about Schapelle Corby" »
Latest 2 of 38 comments
View all comments-
olivia says:
I think she has done enough time. Major flaws in the case Read more »
-
Erik Olsen says:
As a Scandinavian who follow the saga of Schapelle Corby closely I am terrified by reading many comments. Anyone who try to read a little bit behind the headlines, would find this case a crime against Ms Corby and human rights. It is not about whether she deserves to be… Read more »
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
What voters really think of Tony Abbott’s religion
Religious epithets like the “mad monk” and “captain Catholic” are routinely applied… Read more
Most commented
The talk of the town
- My Southern Cross tattoo now brands me as a racist 638
- Atheists can do better than saying believers are stupid 257
- Why there is no International Man’s Day 181
- It's time to allow gay marriage in Australia 178
- Nation's top scientists agree: the climate is changing now 169
- The alternative 164
- Mr Rudd, asylum seekers are real people 136
- Tony Abbott is driving would-be parents crazy 120
- Token ceremony openings must be brought to an end 83
- Only a dope would say cannabis is worse than grog 83
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Don't bring your children and other "rules" of supermarket shopping. Got a gripe or two of your own? Add to my list: http://bit.ly/dBWydm
What voters really think of Tony Abbott, great piece by Nic Christensen & Tina Tek: http://bit.ly/bvLWSz#thepunch
Gentle jabs to the ribs
Breaking news: Something is going on
Is this the greatest ever send-up of 24-hour news? Warning: contains strong language and hilarity. From… Read more
Latest 2 of 14 comments
View all commentsAdd your comment