This decision comes very quickly after the Australian Government's remarks on asylum seeker policy, which has riled Jakarta.
The Haris Ibrahim decision shows that the Abbott Government will be pragmatic rather than principled on general foreign policy issues. This is in stark contrast to the important speech the Australian Ambassador to China Frances Adamson affirming Australian Government concerns about human rights in Tibet in Lhasa just a week before the federal election.
There is a chance that the decision was made by immigration officials without reference to the minister during this transition period of government in Australia. However this is very unlikely unless the department is incompetent because of the far reaching sensitivity of this issue.
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If the policy assumptions behind the decision are found to be valid, then we may have witnessed a major turn in Australian foreign policy, where the encouragement of free expression and ideas within the Asian region is no longer encouraged.
There is also risk that the Australian Government is implicitly supporting the use of a judicial system for political ends in denying Haris Ibrahim a visa, something that should be abhorrent to those who believe in equality under the law and against the use of any legal system for persecution of citizens. At best this was a poor decision, at worst this signifies a massive change in foreign policy.
Foreign policy was not an issue widely debated during Australia's recent election, however many voters will be very surprised with this new policy stance.
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