17-20 Oct Australian National University
Due to an important meeting with the embassy, the CAUSINDY information session will now be held one day later on Thursday 22 August (not on Wednesday 21st anymore) at the same time 7-8.30pm
We’re very sorry to have changed this with such short notice and we hope you can all still make it. If you’re interested in attending please RSVP to applications@causindy.org
CAUSINDY is very pleased to announce The Australian National University (ANU) has come on board with CAUSINDY 2013 as an Executive Partner.
As a major sponsor and Executive Partner, ANU has made a significant commitment to CAUSINDY and we are grateful for their support of our initiative.
CAUSINDY is also excited that our inaugural conference will be held at the ANU campus.
Given The Australian National University’s reputation as a centre for excellence in Indonesian teaching and research we think that holding the conference at ANU is a perfect match for our conference focus.
We are also extremely grateful to the ANU for their support in securing world-class speakers for our conference sessions.
As part of their sponsorship package, ANU will also be selecting one alumnus of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific to represent the university at CAUSINDY 2013. The travel costs of this delegate will be fully covered. For this reason we encourage all alumni of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific who are applying for CAUSINDY to indicate this on their application forms.
We thank ANU again for their generous support of CAUSINDY 2013 and look forward to introducing CAUSINDY delegates to the fantastic staff and facilities at the ANU.
Last minute date change – now being held on Thursday 22nd August, 7-8.30pm
Due to an important meeting with the Embassy, we’ve had to change the info session to Thursday, hope you can still make it!
Find out everything you need to know about CAUSINDY
It’s your chance to ask questions directly to the CAUSINDY team, meet with other potential delegates and find out more about short-listed interview process. We’ll be providing snacks and drinks – so if you’re thinking of applying to become a delegate, come along and find out more about the conference.
All attendees should RSVP to the event by contacting applications@causindy.org before Friday, the 16th of August. Applicants will receive details of event location upon registration.
Download flyer on Information Session
In this new series, we’re speaking to young Australians and Indonesians who have had personal experience in the bilateral relationship. For our first post, we spoke to Clare Price, a young Australian with a background in communications and media.
Do you know someone we should speak to? Let us know through our Facebook or Twitter pages!
What is your background with Indonesia?
Sebenarnya hubungan saya dengan Indonesia terjadi lewat Ibu saya. Dia bekerja sebagai guru bahasa Indonesia sejak saya kecil, dan dari awal ibu menginginkan saya belajar bahasa Indonesia. Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia di SMP dan SMA kemudian di universitas juga. Pertama kali saya ke Indonesia adalah pada saat saya berumur 10 tahun, saya ke Bali dengan ibu saya, dan tentu saja saya jatuh cinta dengan pulau Bali. Ketika saya umur 15 tahun saya mengunjungi Sulewesi Selatan juga.
My mum introduced me to Indonesia. She worked as an Indonesian teacher, and encouraged me to study the language. I studied Indonesian in primary, secondary school, and at university. I visited Indonesia for the first time when I was 10, to Bali, and was blown away. I also visited South Sulawesi at 15.
Your blog gives an amazing snapshot of life in Jakarta – and some of the most interesting are the everyday observations. What were the highlights?
Ada banyak hal sehari-hari di Indonesia yang menarik. Misalnya, kegiatan-kegiatan yang terjadi di setiap tepi jalan di Indonesia yaitu kaki lima yang jual makanan yang eksotik, dan ribuan orang yang habiskan waktu di tepi jalan, nonkrong namanya. Ketika saya tinggal di Jakarta ada seekor penyu yang besar sekali yang tinggal di dalam pasar ikan di ujung gang saya. Penyunya suka makan pepaya. Hal lain yang menarik adalah masyarakat kreatif di Jakarta yang besar, selalu ada eksibisi seni,foto dan band-band lokal yang main juga banyak orang-orang yang ingin berbagi ide-ide serta kreasi dalam dunianya.
In Indonesia, there are so many interesting things happening in everyday life: activities on the side of the road, kaki lima and people sitting and chatting with friends everywhere. In Jakarta, a huge turtle lived in the fish market at the end of my street, I used to feed it papaya. Another interesting aspect of life in Jakarta is the city’s huge creative community – there’s always an art or photography exhibition opening or local band playing.
How do you see people-to-people links between Australia and Indonesia growing?
Hubungannya antara orang Australia dan orang Indonesia akan terus tumbuh di masa depan, sebenarnya pada saat ini hubungannya sudah kuat sekali. Indonesia dan Australia adalah tetangga, dan karena itu, seharusnya bekerja sama dan berbagi pengalaman-pengalaman terkait perdagangan, pembangunan, politik dan pendidikan.
The people-to-people links between Australian and Indonesian will continue grow – building on what’s already been established. Indonesia and Australia are neighbours, and will always have trade, development, politics and education links.
What role do you think aid plays in shaping Indonesia’s perceptions of Australia?
Pasti program bantuan dari Australia akan membentuk persepsi orang Indonesia tentang Australia. Juga hal lain seperti budaya, politik dan olahraga membentuk persepsi tersebut. Apa yang paling penting adalah program bantuan Australia di Indonesia adalah program yang berhasil, yang mengurangi kemiskinan, memperkuat pelayanan-pelayanan kesehatan, membangun sekolah-sekolah di daerah yang terpencil dan menghentikan serta mencegah penyebaran penyakit seperti HIV/AIDS.
Absolutely Australia’s aid program affects Indonesia’s perception of Australia – along with cultural differences, politics, and sport. What’s most important is that Australia’s aid program in Indonesia continues to reduce poverty, strengthen health services, build schools and prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
Indonesia is developing rapidly: where do you see Australia’s aid program in 10 years’ time?
Mudah-mudahan Indonesia tidak akan memerlukan program bantuan Australia di sepuluh tahun ke depan. Dan saya pikir AusAID pasti punya harapan yang sama. AusAID mau mendukung Pemerintah Indonesia sekarang dengan mengurangi tingkat kemiskinan di seluruh Indonesia, tetapi AusAID juga punya harapan besar bahwa Indonesia menjadi negara yang lebih daripada negara berkembang sehinggah tidak memerlukan program bantuan lagi.
Those working in aid hope to work themselves out of a job! The aid community works with the goal that Indonesia won’t need Australian aid in 10 years. AusAID is willing to support the Indonesian government in its efforts to reduce poverty, but as Indonesia is growing at such a rapid pace, aid wont always be required.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth has recently joined CAUSINDY as a minor sponsor.
We are very excited to have Corrs on board. As a world class law firm committed to driving economic engagement with Asia, Corrs is forging strong partnerships throughout our region.
Corrs has a variety of initiatives to drive such partnerships. Corrs recently joined with ANU to create an Asian Engagement Series designed to equip business executives with the knowledge they need to capitalise on emerging Asian markets. Corrs also has an wide range of partner law firms and international secondment destinations throughout the region, including in Jakarta.
Some readers may also be familiar with John W H Denton who is Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Corrs. John is also one of three Prime Ministerial representatives on the APEC Business Advisory Council and was one of two originating members of the B20, the business reference group of the G20. John was, and remains, a member of the Australian’s government’s advisory board on the development, review and implementation of the “Australia in the Asian Century” White Paper. John has written a number of articles for the Jakarta Globe about the Australia Indonesia relationship and the White Paper. John looks forward to supporting CAUSINDY.
We welcome Corrs and the opportunity to work together to make CAUSINDY 2013 a great success.
Photo: AFP
Read the first post in this series here.
AIYA was broadly supportive of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper although we doubled down on our engagement through drafting an official response to the White Paper and releasing this through our media contacts. As in the original submission, a team of three were drafted, this time comprised of Arjuna Dibley, AIYA’s Executive Director, Director of Communications Tim Graham and CAUSINDY Director Chris Urbanski.
In our position paper, we doubled down on our advocacy over the working holiday visa scheme – which did not rate a mention in the White Paper, but which we saw as an issue that should be front-of-mind for Australian foreign affairs officers working on the relationship.
Like many other commentators following the White Paper’s release, we drew attention to:
We called for a series of policy initiatives to the greater supply and demand for ‘Asia capability’ in the workforce, including:
At the heart of these recommendations is a belief that these Asia capabilities, such as language and cultural awareness, create a ‘public good’ by enabling Australia to deepen its economic engagement and improve its security through improved relationships with our Asia-Pacific neighbours.
While we still believe in this notion, these arguments are always difficult to advance as they require the uncertain and long term benefits of better regional engagement to be weighed against other pressing areas of Government concern. Every dollar devoted to Asian language training comes at the expense of a dollar of other subjects in the national curriculum, or health, welfare, overseas aid – and all at a time of fiscal constraint.
I’ll come back to this point shortly, but first want to introduce our most recent policy contribution – AIYA’s submission to the federal government’s Indonesia Country Strategy. This paper was greatly strengthened by adding some new faces to our policy team including Jess Laughlin, ANU Chapter President and Mike Tarn, a member of AIYA’s Western Australia chapter, who produced an outstanding document, and produced new insights into our members’ views through a refreshed survey.
In this submission, we changed our tack slightly from our response paper outlined above to 1) acknowledge the reality of the external operating environment – that government money does not grow on trees; and 2) deepen our thinking on what really is the right role of Government to play in fostering our engagement with the region – versus the role of the individual, business, or civil society (including AIYA). The new submission also included up-to-the-minute insight on our members’ views on the opportunities and impediments in the relationship
A lot of internal debate and reflection on our members’ survey led to us advancing more liberal arguments of Government as ‘market maker’ in Australia’s engagement with Asia: essentially building the railroad along which a two-way flow of public, business and civil engagement can flow. We also stressed the importance of cultural engagement and the value of people to people links in the relationship – direct insight from our survey of members who consistently rated these as the most important things to get right (as opposed to say economic, aid, or military engagement).
‘Build cultural awareness, and mutual understanding becomes easier’ was a recurrent theme in the data.
And so our paper landed on a discussion of opportunity areas and a set of recommendations that was centred on:
You can see the full submission on the AIYA website, but suffice to say we’re extremely proud of the quality of our set of high impact, but cost effective and practical recommendations. And from early indications – others are too – keep an eye out for an AIYA mention when DFAT releases its Indonesia Country Strategy later this year!
As mentioned in my previous post – CAUSINDY will be a real engine for AIYA’s policy ideas and contribution to the public discourse in the years ahead. And you don’t need to be a delegate to contribute in this area – AIYA’s members’ survey is a great way to make your ideas known, as is getting involved in our policy work through AIYA’s chapters or at the national level.
Photo: AP
The extent of public engagement with Australia’s place in the 21st century has ramped up dramatically over the past 12 months.
There is a growing awareness and recognition that the relatively stable geopolitical and economic dynamics that shaped Australia’s place in global society since the Second World War are now rapidly changing. This paradigm shift is encapsulated broadly in the phrase the “Asian Century” which recognises that the political, economic and cultural and security dynamics of the 21st century will increasingly be shaped by the emerging economies of the Asia Pacific region.
With more and more policy statements and column inches devoted to discussions around Australia should interact with its emerging neighbours in Asia, private, public and civil society organisations all have a role to play in representing the interests of their members to the decision makers who ultimately will steer the state of our relations.
Over the past 12 months, the Australia-Indonesia Youth Association, or AIYA, has been an active participant in the Australian Government’s public consultations on how to position Australia in the ‘Asian Century’, and how our relationships – especially with Indonesia – should be managed.
This process began 12 months ago, when the federal government called for public submissions to its Australia in the Asian Century white paper. AIYA’s submission was drafted by a team of three, including AIYA’s Executive Director Arjuna Dibley, Director of Partnerships Fe Donahue, and AIYA member Nicholas Parsons, with help from Rachelle Cole, AIYA’s Director of Operations. It contained insights from a survey conducted amongst AIYA’s audience addressing the challenges involved in engaging with the region.
The final can be downloaded from the AIYA website.
The submission represented AIYA’s members in two main areas:
Although these might seem like relatively obvious ways of improving Australia’s bilateral engagement with Indonesia, AIYA’s submission was important in that it represented the growing number of university students and early career professionals seeking a long term career related to this important relationship.
What did this submission achieve?
For starters, it led to strong media coverage regarding problems that Australians face accessing the Indonesian Work and Holiday Visa. AIYA’s proprietary member research provided unique and timely insight to existing challenges with obtaining this visa, which allowed the issue to be successfully raised in the press.
Beyond this, the release of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper coincided with some small but significant policy items. One of these was an increase to the maximum loan size under the OS-HELP scheme for undergraduate students pursuing tertiary study in Asia.
The Government is assisting Australian university students wanting to study in Asia through its Higher Education Support Amendment (Asian Century) Bill 2013. From 2014, the legislation will provide greater financial assistance through the OS-HELP scheme for students wanting to undertake part of their study in Asia. Under this legislation, the maximum loan available for students undertaking study in Asia will be increased from $1,250 to $7,500.1
The government also announced its support for Indonesian language teaching, identifying Indonesian as one of four ‘priority languages’ to be offered from primary school through to university.
Can AIYA claim all the credit for these wins? Not entirely – policy outcomes are ultimately shaped by many hands and many heads. But without a doubt our engagement in the process adds the voice of our members to the end product.
It is our hope that the CAUSINDY conference along with our annual members’ survey, will become the cornerstones and ‘intellectual engine room’ for AIYA’s contributions to the discourse on Australia-Indonesia relations in the years ahead.
Stay tuned for part 2, in which we describe our follow-up response to white paper, and contributions to the development of and Indonesia Country Strategy…
Australian artists must explore Indonesia from Asialink Video.
Last week in Melbourne, AIYA Victoria and Asialink hosted a discussion on creative links between Australia and Indonesia. The panel, which included visual artist Tim Woodward, Melbourne-based musician Tristan Coleman and Indonesian actress Rani Pramesti, looked at Indonesia’s burgeoning arts scene and the opportunities for closer engagement between Australian and Indonesian artists.
Indonesian speakers can also check out a fascinating interview with Rani on the Radio Australia website.
Today, we’re ecstatic to announce that the application process for the first Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth is now open!
This October, the successful delegates for CAUSINDY 2013 will take part in an exciting four day program hosted at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Delegates will have an amazing opportunity to connect with leading experts, commentators, and figures from Australia and Indonesia, as well as the chance to connect with other like-minded young people with a keen interest in the bilateral relationship. Successful applicants will have their travel and accommodation costs subsidised.
Delegates will also have the chance to network with leaders in business and government from both countries.
Apply to become a delegate to CAUSINDY 2013.
As a premier bilateral event that has attracted the support of national governments, and tier-1 university and corporate partners, CAUSINDY is aimed at the future movers and shakers of the Australia-Indonesia bilateral relationship. This year 30 outstanding young leaders (15 from Australia and 15 from Indonesia) will be selected from diverse range of professional backgrounds will be selected to join the conference.
Our ideal candidate will have:
Because places are limited, it is likely that successful candidates will need to strongly satisfy all of the criteria above – this may mean some experience working full-time, in addition to completing a bachelor/S1 degree, as well as an ability to demonstrate leadership qualities and commitment to the bilateral relationship through your occupation or extra-curricular involvements.
If this sounds like you, please click here to apply.
Think you might be a future candidate for CAUSINDY? No hurry – we’re planning to run the conference again next year, and beyond. If you’re interested, be sure to join our Facebook page or sign up for our mailing list.
Networking with the Boston Consulting Group and AIYA NSW. Photo: AIYA NSW
Today, we’re really excited to announce a brand new initiative from AIYA: our inaugural Conference for Australian and Indonesian Youth. Following on from past opportunities like our networking events and internships, the conference will give 30 young leaders from Australia and Indonesia the opportunity to work together in building a stronger relationship between Australia and Indonesia.
Planned for October this year, the conference will be hosted by the Australian National University in Canberra. CAUSINDY’s mission is to improve the bilateral relationship by creating a platform for youth dialogue. Participants will have the opportunity to connect with each other, and experts in business, government, and academia.
In line with its theme, ‘Our turn to decide’, CAUSINDY will shape new ideas about the bilateral relationship of tomorrow. The conference will also act as a catalyst for change, by providing government and business groups with recommendations and input on policy in economic, social, cultural, and political issues.
With the support of the Australian National University, we’re pleased to announce that the conference has already attracted funding, and is also supported by the Australian government through the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For more information on sponsorship, contact the conference’s co-founders Chris Urbanski and Bede Moore.
If you’re interested in shaping the bilateral relationship of tomorrow, enter your email address below, and we’ll keep you posted on news from the conference’s organising committee.
We’re working towards launching a full CAUSINDY website in the coming weeks, with more information about the program, dates, volunteer opportunities, and application criteria for delegates. Stay tuned!Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
