Jakarta. The president of Australia’s Human Rights Commission has been slammed by the country’s Immigration Minister after linking the April execution of two Bali Nine drug traffickers to the “turn back the boats” policy.

Speaking at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Adelaide on Thursday, Gillian Triggs said the influx of asylum-seeking boats must stop, but questioned if much thought had been given to the consequences of the controversial policy, which has strained relations between Indonesia and Australia in recent years.

“Is it any wonder that Indonesia will not engage with us on other issues that we care about, like the death penalty?” she said, as quoted by The Australian newspaper.

Noting the joint response of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to the Rohingya refugee crisis, Triggs suggested the Australian government move toward a “proper diplomatic process for a regional solution.”

Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Friday deemed the comments an “outrageous slur” and called on the former lawyer to apologize to the Australian public and the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed on April 29 on Nusakambangan prison island, off the coast of Central Java.

More than 15 boats have been turned back to Indonesian waters since the “Operation Sovereign Borders” policy was introduced at the end of 2013. 

The policy sees Australian Navy personnel hand out water and other supplies — and move asylum seekers on to a more seaworthy vessel if necessary — before towing boats back into Indonesian waters. It is often done without the support of local authorities Dutton said earlier this year.

On Sunday, a boat carrying 65 people, including five crew and a number of children, ran aground on a reef near Rote island off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province after being towed back by Australia’s Royal Australian Navy. The passengers were rescued by local fishermen.

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Jakarta. A spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on Thursday called on the Australian government to “believe in what they sign,” after Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to offer temporary resettlement to thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi asylum seekers — despite being a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Abbott said on Thursday when asked if Australia was prepared to resettle thousands of refugees fleeing Myanmar.

“I’m sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door,” the prime minister said in comments published by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Abbott has held fast to his government’s “stop the boats” policy, in which boats attempting to enter Australia’s territorial waters are turned around to their country of origin and would-be refugees are expected to apply for immigrant status before reaching Australia.

Australia’s off-shore detention centers, in which asylum seekers are confined for processing, have been the subject of repeated condemnations by the UN for violating human rights.

Foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir called on the Australian government to honor its commitments, saying that “parties to the convention on refugees have a responsibility to ensure they believe in what they sign.”

Indonesia and Malaysia have both offered one year of temporary settlement for the thousands of Rohingya whose boats have washed up on the coast of the two countries. Neither are signatories to the UN convention.

Meanwhile, the Australian government announced an extra A$6 million ($4.7 million) in aid would be allocated to humanitarian agencies in Myanmar, focusing on the Rakhine state which is home to the Rohingya minority.

This funding announcement comes a week after Indonesia’s allocated aid budget was cut by 40 percent by Australia, a figure equivalent to a A$28 million withdrawal.

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Jakarta. Aid to Indonesia is set to see a massive cut in the Australian budget to be announced on Tuesday, according to the chief of the top development NGO association Down Under.

Marc Purcell, director at the Australian Council for International Development, told Fairfax Media this week that the cuts will likely exacerbate the already fraught diplomatic relations between the two countries.

There was no information available on the numbers ahead of the official announcement, but overall cuts to the aid budget have long been considered a foregone conclusion as Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey aim for a A$1 billion ($794 million) cut to Australia’s spending for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

Indonesia, as the largest recipient of Australian aid, has been pegged to face the lion’s share of savings.

The 2014-15 Australian budget saw over A$605 million assigned to Indonesia to fund infrastructure, education and health programs throughout the archipelago.

Cuts to aid programs across Africa are also expected, with diplomatic staff to Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Angola and Ethiopia calling on the Australian foreign ministry to reconsider.

Death penalty campaign

Aid became a major factor in the failed campaign to prevent the execution of convicted Australian drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were shot dead last week along with five other foreigners and one Indonesian national.

Comments made by Abbott in February linking the executions to A$1 billion in funding and humanitarian assistance after the 2004 Aceh tsunami enraged many in Indonesia and led to days of protests at the Australian embassy and a campaign to collect money to “repay the debt.”

During a candlelight vigil ceremony held in Sydney on the evening of the executions on Nusakambangan prison island off Central Java last week, noted human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson called on the Australian government to withdraw aid from Indonesia and instead further fund rescue efforts in the aftermath of Nepal’s devastating earthquake.

Robin Davies, a research fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, told Fairfax that while the cuts are budgetary measures they will “certainly be seen in some areas as retribution.”

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