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This paper analyses major features of and issues in Australia-Indonesia economic relations, focusing on merchandise trade, investment, services trade and aid. There is disappointment in both countries that the economic relationship is not stronger, although there are obvious reasons — both related to policies and to economic structures — why bilateral commerce has not expanded more rapidly. The paper also points to areas of strength in the economic relationship, and to future challenges and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadly framed in terms of performance theories by Turner and Beeman, this paper weaves together the historical, mythical, ritual and performative aspects of a 1997 encounter in Sulawesi between Yolŋu (an Aboriginal people of northern Australia) and Macassans (people from southern Sulawesi, Indonesia). The focus of the paper is an indigenous opera called Trepang, which is based on the centuries-long history of trading relations and family connections between the two groups, and the way its performance was used by the Yolŋu and Macassan cast members to renegotiate their often turbulent shared history, along with the contemporary social and ritual order. In this light, Trepang can be understood as a restorative social process, a means of pursuing a common path and a way of ameliorating the discrepancies of the past - bringing the parties finally together as one. Analysing the social context in which the performance of historical 'truths' was negotiated, I unpack key events in the staging of this 'play within a play' and demonstrate the need to transgress the dualism of ritual and spectacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia and Indonesia are two vastly different countries that share a common sea border in the Timor and Arafura Seas. Yet economically, culturally and diplomatically, Australia and Indonesia have been moving much closer together over the last 20 years. In March 1997, the final portion of the seabed border was finally delineated, shortly before the onset of the serious economic crisis. This paper focuses on the changing political and economic relations between the two countries and links this with a discussion of border issues, specifically UNCLOS III, fish and hydrocarbon resources, the Timor Gap Zone of Cooperation and the still unresolved East Timor question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North-South issues as such do not figure prominently in Australia's international policy but are mostly implicit. These issues arise particularly in the context of Australia's relations with countries in its immediate vicinity, including the South Pacific, Indonesia and East Timor. There are also some global issues in the North-South context where Australia is affected. Australian governments, in developing policies relating to this context, have been influenced by a 'practical realism' that puts first priority on Australian interests as perceived by governments at any given time. The way in which those policies have been developed, in both the regional and the global contexts, can be assessed through an examination of issues relating to security and international economic relations. Australia's alliance relationship has a strong bearing on the way Australia approaches the security issues. In relation to international economic issues there are many commonalities with fellow producers of raw materials in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Australia's aid program in Indonesia in the 1960s. With the transfer by the Dutch of West New Guinea to Indonesia in May 1963, the Australian government looked to expand aid to its northern neighbour beyond the Colombo Plan in an effort to cement friendly relations. The events associated with konfrontasi threatened this policy objective. Yet despite Indonesia's belligerent stance, Australia was able to continue its aid program (by supporting the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) and to keep the lines of communication with Jakarta open. When konfrontasi ended in August 1966 after regime change in Indonesia, Australia was able to rapidly expand its aid program. This article argues that konfrontasi changed the ways in which Australia's aid program in Indonesia was construed, which in turn contributed to a re-consideration of the role of aid in Australia's foreign policy more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]