Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think is outrageous. Let me try to get my point across through the fusillade of gabbling coming from the member for Griffith. In relation to Abu Bakar Bashir, the Indonesians have made a very clear commitment to the United Nations Security Council in resolution 1267 and the decision of the 1267 committee to register Abu Bakar Bashir as a terrorist. Having done that, it means that it falls upon the Indonesian government to fulfil its obligations under that resolution. Those obligations include freezing the financial assets of Abu Bakar Bashir, which is obviously welcome, to ensure that he has no access to military equipment of any kind. The Indonesians have been working very hard in the area of counter-terrorism, including endeavouring to ensure that the messages taught in and sent out from the pesantren, the Islamic schools in Indonesia, are moderate and are broadly based messages.

The suggestion that the Indonesians are soft on terrorism is quite wrong. The Indonesian government has done an excellent job in fighting terrorism. In relation to Abu Bakar Bashir, it can only be repeated that the government is deeply disappointed by the shortness of the sentence. The sentence was much shorter than we and the international community would have liked to have seen, and I think the Indonesian government shares that view. Contrary to the implication of what the honourable member has said, the Indonesian government is very concerned about Abu Bakar Bashir and his activities. The honourable member may have overlooked this, but the Indonesians themselves have suffered grievously from acts of terror by Jemaah Islamiah, and the suggestion that somehow they do not care about that, I think, is a little offensive to them.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Health and Ageing Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $4,442,462,000.

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