Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott on Thursday said he was confident his government could work with
Indonesia despite a senior Jakarta official calling his controversial
asylum-seeker policy "offensive".
Indonesian MP Tantowi Yahya, a
member of the parliamentary foreign affairs commission, said there were
"major concerns" that the policy would interfere with his country's
sovereignty.
His comments echoed sentiments
expressed recently by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who said
Jakarta would rebuff Abbott's plans to tow back boats in a military response
titled Operation Sovereign Borders.
Under the scheme, Abbott also
plans to embed Australian police in Indonesian villages, buy up fishing boats
to keep them from people-smugglers and pay locals for intelligence.
"I think the policy will be
very offensive and we in the parliament fully support what was said by our
foreign minister -- that we will fully reject the policy," Yahya told ABC
television late Wednesday.
The divisive issue of halting
asylum-seeker boats that typically originate in Indonesia loomed large in
Australia's recent election race and Abbott's pledge to "Stop the
Boats" was a central plank of his campaign.
Yahya said towing boats back was
"illegal" and implementing the policy as it stands would strain ties.
"It will obviously damage
our relationship," he said, adding Jakarta only learned details of the
plan "from the newspapers".
"We have to work together.
The platform is cooperation," he said, adding that one country should not
become "the police".
Abbott, who was sworn in as
Australia's new prime minister on Wednesday, said he would not "conduct
discussions with Indonesia through the media".
"Too much damage has been
done in the past through megaphone diplomacy and it is never going to happen
under this government."
But the conservative added:
"I have no argument with anyone in the Indonesian establishment.
"Indonesia is a robust
democracy, as Australia is. There are many voices in Indonesia but I am very
confident that this government will be able to work effectively with the
Indonesia government as former coalition governments have done."
On Monday, new Foreign Minister
Julie Bishop said she would talk with Natalegawa about the issue at a UN
meeting in New York this weekend, insisting the policy would not breach
Indonesia's sovereignty.
"We're not asking for
Indonesia's permission, we're asking for their understanding," she said.
Abbott is expected to visit
Jakarta in the coming fortnight.
Australia has struggled to manage
the stream of asylum-seekers arriving on rickety, overloaded fishing boats with
hundreds dying on the risky journey in recent years.
As well as Abbott's Operation
Sovereign Borders policy, the new government has said it plans to stand by the
former Labor administration's policy of sending any boatpeople arrivals to
Papua New Guinea and Nauru for processing and resettlement.
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