Officers investigated after teargas fired and at least 125 people, including 32 children, killed in crush
An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts and 18 others were being investigated for responsibility in the firing of teargas inside a soccer stadium that led to a crush, killing at least 125 people, officials said.
Indonesian police are facing increasing pressure over their management of crowds during the Kanjuruhan stadium disaster.
Continue reading...Police and match organisers under scrutiny after officers fired teargas in response to rioting fans
At least 125 people have been killed and around 320 injured at a football match in Indonesia in one of the world’s worst ever sports stadium disasters.
Police used teargas in response to a pitch invasion by rioting fans, causing a crush among panicked spectators.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Workers say they have been charged to guarantee a job – which may be illegal – and have not yet had an interview
Indonesians dreaming of working in Britain are understood to have paid deposits of up to £2,500 to a Jakarta agency to “guarantee” jobs on UK farms that have not yet materialised.
Labour experts say a deposit is considered a work-finding fee, which is illegal in the UK and Indonesia.
Continue reading...Intan says he paid more than a month’s wages from his old job to guarantee his place, but remains unemployed
The Instagram advert boasted “Job vacancies United Kingdom” above an image of plump lettuces and the promise of wages more than double most desk jobs in Indonesia.
When Intan (not his real name) saw it on his phone in Jakarta this summer, he couldn’t resist. He was no farmer but, with a wife and children to support, the economics were unarguable.
Continue reading...Only Singapore has imposed sanctions, while others have been receptive to Moscow’s offers of friendship
The head of Myanmar’s military junta beamed with joy as he shook hands with Vladimir Putin this week. “We would call you not just the leader of Russia but a leader of the world because you control and organise stability around the whole world,” Min Aung Hlaing said.
His remarks came as Putin claimed in a defiant speech that European efforts to isolate Russia would fail: instead, he would pivot to Asia.
Continue reading...Early release of ex-member of terror group linked to al-Qaida will cause distress for bereaved, says Australian PM
Umar Patek, the bomb maker who helped assemble the devices used in the 2002 bombing in Bali, could walk free early from prison this year.
The Indonesian ministry of law and human rights regional office in East Java has proposed the early release after the ex-member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian terror group linked to al-Qaida, completed two-thirds of his sentence, plus remissions.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Lawyers for two Indonesian children wrongly jailed for people smuggling ask Mark Dreyfus to refer case for appeal, calling Christian Porter’s ruling on the case a ‘mockery of justice’
Two Indonesian children who were imprisoned as adult people smugglers using deeply flawed evidence have asked attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, to use his mercy powers and resolve the “mockery of justice” overseen by his predecessor Christian Porter.
Earlier this year, Guardian Australia used a trove of internal documents to reveal how federal police had placed fictitious dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute eight Indonesian children as adult people smugglers, relying on a wrist X-ray age assessment technique they knew at the time to be questionable.
Continue reading...As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers
Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.
Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.
Continue reading...Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew
Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.
He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.
Continue reading...As Washington seeks to shore up alliances in the Pacific, Gen Mark Milley says Beijing’s attempts to expand its influence are ‘not benign’
The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the United States’ top military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop in Indonesia.
Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with US and other partner forces had increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.
Continue reading...Agriculture minister Murray Watt says federal government confident new biosecurity measures enough to protect livestock industry
The federal government is resisting calls to close Australia’s border to Indonesia over the foot-and-mouth disease threat, after more fragments of the potentially devastating livestock virus were detected in South Australia.
The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, said he was confident that new federal biosecurity measures would be sufficient to keep out foot-and-mouth disease, which could threaten Australia’s entire meat industry, as farmers call on the government to not overreact.
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Continue reading...Claimants say they are experiencing serious negative impacts and demand Swiss-based Holcim pay compensation
Residents of an Indonesian island threatened by rising sea levels have begun legal action against the cement producer Holcim.
The claim for compensation, filed in Switzerland by three men and one woman, is understood to be the first major climate damages lawsuit against a cement company.
Continue reading...Agriculture minister says disinfectant mats will be installed to prevent arrival of the disease, which is spreading in Indonesia
The federal government will install acidic disinfectant mats at airports as part of an expanded suite of biosecurity measures to prevent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) entering Australia from Indonesia.
The new precautions come as viral fragments of the disease were detected in food products arriving from China.
Continue reading...Meeting in Indonesia will be the first with the Russian envoy since the Kremlin invaded its neighbour, triggering global food and energy crises
See all our Ukraine coverage here
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has flown into the Indonesian island of Bali for a gathering of G20 foreign ministers, which is likely to be overshadowed by Moscow’s war in Ukraine and deep divisions within the bloc over how to respond to the crisis.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Lavrov and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi are all due to attend the gathering as concern among western governments mounts about the war’s impact on the cost of food and fuel, which has prompted the UN to warn of an “unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution”.
Continue reading...Former Labor frontbencher Greg Combet says group will examine viability of infrastructure investment opportunities as Australia tries to move past its reliance on China
Former Labor frontbencher and chair of IFM Investors Greg Combet will lead a high-powered delegation of leaders from the superannuation industry to Jakarta next month as part of efforts to turbocharge the economic relationship between Australia and Indonesia.
Combet has confirmed the group will examine the viability of investment opportunities in infrastructure on the back of a successful visit in June, when Anthony Albanese took a business delegation to Jakarta during his first visit to the country as prime minister.
Continue reading...Saifuddin Abdullah points to risk of regional arms race but pledges increased trade and cooperation on cybersecurity with Australia
Malaysia’s foreign minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, has said that his country’s concerns about the Aukus nuclear submarine pact remain unchanged, after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.
Saifuddin told reporters he communicated Malaysia’s ongoing concern about the security deal between Australia, the UK and the US during a “very candid” discussion with Wong on her first visit to the Malaysian capital as Australia’s foreign minister.
Continue reading...Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity says complaint about federal police not about corruption so does not fall within its remit
Australia’s law enforcement integrity watchdog refused to investigate Australian federal police who relied on a deeply flawed technique to use false dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute Indonesian children as adult people smugglers.
Earlier this year, the Guardian used a trove of internal documents to show how police relied on deeply flawed evidence to alter the dates of birth given to them by Indonesian children found crewing asylum boats in 2009 and 2010.
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Continue reading...Prime minister says there is significant opportunity for Australian companies in Indonesia’s growing economy
Anthony Albanese has declared Australia needs to move past its reliance on China for trade and income-generating opportunities with business needing to prioritise new strategies in Indonesia.
On his final day in Indonesia, the prime minister on Tuesday said industry could not rely on a thaw in the Australia-China relationship to restore lost opportunities.
Continue reading...Prime minister responds to reports of Chinese naval base in Cambodia; nation records 29 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
There’s no magic fix for inflation, Jason Clare says
Education minister Jason Clare appeared on the Today show this morning alongside Scott Emerson.
Inflation is through the roof. Wages are through the floor. We have got interest rates knocking at the door. The Reserve Bank ... have made it clear there will be a number of interest rate rises, which makes it harder for people with big rate rises already. Especially for people who are ahead in their mortgage, but if you have just signed up and the bank says you have to pay more, it will make it harder and harder.
There is no simple magic fix to this.
The market expects them to increase interest rates because we have an inflation problem in the economy and rising interest rates were something that the Reserve Bank governor flagged before the election and that is the trajectory we are on, but just because these interest rate rises are expected, it won’t make them any less difficult for a lot of people who are already confronting cost-of- living pressures.
That is the unfortunate reality. There is no point mincing words about that. Our job is the government is to make sure that after some of this near-term cost-of-living relief runs out that it is replaced by responsible long-term sustainable cost-of-living relief in areas like medicines and childcare, getting power bills down over time and getting real wages moving again.
Continue reading...Ahead of travelling to Makassar on Tuesday, Anthony Albanese tells Jakarta business leaders Australia will partner with Indonesia to drive clean energy transition
Anthony Albanese says Australia’s economic relationship with Indonesia has “struggled to keep pace” with the country’s “extraordinary economic rise” but the new government in Canberra will dig in behind emerging opportunities, including partnerships in clean energy.
Before travelling on Tuesday to Makassar, on the southern tip of Sulawesi – a region the Indonesian president wants to develop – Australia’s prime minister told business leaders in Jakarta that Indonesia was “central to our trade diversification strategy”.
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