The Department of Foreign Affairs (Australia) has released the results of a new survey conducted by Newspoll on ‘Australian attitudes towards Indonesia‘.
Most Australians surveyed wrongly believe that Indonesia’s legal system is based on Islamic law, and are not aware that Indonesia is a democracy.
On this issue of people smuggling, 50% of respondents were ‘concerned’ and believed that the Indonesian government is doing ‘little or nothing’ about it.
As Antje Missbach and I have shown in our report on ‘Trials of People Smugglers in Indonesia’, however, the Indonesian government has introduced and begun to implement significant legislative reforms that make people smuggling a criminal offence that potentially attracts a very high prison term and fine.
Melissa Crouch 