Mr GEORGIOU (2:02 PM) —My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister able to confirm the visit to Australia of the President of Indonesia? What implications does this have for the Australia-Indonesia partnership and our relations more generally?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I thank the member for Kooyong for his question. I know that members on both sides of the House will welcome the fact that the President of Indonesia, President Yudhoyono, will pay an official visit to Australia between 31 March and 2 April this year. This visit will represent a further advance in the relations between our two countries. It will be the first visit to this country by an Indonesian president since the visit by President Wahid in June 2001, shortly before that gentleman ceased to be the President of Indonesia. That visit was the first that had taken place for a period of close to 30 years, the previous visit having been by President Suharto during the term in office of the Whitlam government.

President Yudhoyono will bring to this visit a very strong commitment to the bilateral relationship. He is a person of great dignity and strength. He is a person who represents very much the new democratic future of Indonesia. Indonesia is now the third largest democracy in the world and it goes unremarked what that country has achieved in the last few years in its transition to democracy. Indonesia has suffered more than any other country as a result of the tsunami. It is well known to members on both sides of the House that the contribution that Australia has made to rebuilding the Aceh province after the tsunami has been second to none of those by nations around the world.

I should also inform the House that the visit to Australia by President Yudhoyono will be preceded, on Friday this week, by the first meeting for some time of the joint ministerial council between Australia and Indonesia. There will be no fewer than nine ministers of the Indonesian government who will sit down with their counterparts in the Australian government here in Canberra on Friday not only to exchange policy experiences but also to further build the bilateral relationship. In addition to that, on Thursday afternoon—that is, tomorrow—there will be the first meeting, which I will briefly attend, of the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development. This is the joint body that was established by President Yudhoyono and me and that will oversee the disbursement of the $1 billion aid package—the largest in Australia’s history—that has been made available in the wake of the tsunami. I take this opportunity of saying again to the parliament that none of that money can be disbursed except with the joint approval of the governments of Indonesia and Australia. At that meeting Australia will be represented by the Treasurer and the foreign minister. Their counterparts on the Indonesian side will be the foreign minister and the minister for planning.

In conclusion, can I say that the state of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia owes a great deal to the efforts of many people. I want to pay particular tribute to the efforts of many of my own ministers, particularly the Minister for Foreign Affairs. His relationship with his counterpart in the Indonesian government, Hassan Wirajuda, is a very integral part of the relationship. Very importantly, can I also record the value of the links between the Australian Federal Police, their counterparts in the Indonesian government and also the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Both of those agencies have developed the closest possible relationships with their Indonesian counterparts, and of course those relationships were very material in catching those responsible for the terrible attack in Bali which murdered 88 Australians in October 2002.