SBS Chief Political Correspondent Brett Mason is travelling with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Indonesia. Follow his updates on Twitter and Instagram.
If Australians are still getting to know their Prime Minister - he is, to be fair, the fifth in five years - it’s safe to say few in Indonesia will have heard of him.
Scott Morrison heads to the world’s largest Muslim nation on Thursday as the region’s newest political player. He’ll attend Friday prayers before talking free trade with President Joko Widodo at his Bogor palace.
Some locals may know him as the immigration minister who launched the “stop the boats” policy, others may wonder why his predecessor was forced so suddenly from office, but for most, the only clue about his identity will be his trademark Australian flag pin.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Source: AAP
The trip was intended for Malcolm Turnbull, an aggrieved friend of Mr Widodo, and would have included visits to three other Asian nations. They have now been cancelled.
But it will be the former treasurer who, barely seven days into the top job, will be shaking hands with Mr Widodo in Jakarta and signing-off on a multi-billion-dollar free trade agreement that a trail of deposed prime ministers, foreign ministers and trade ministers have spent years negotiating.
“It’s certainly unconventional,” a member of the still-being-assembled Prime Minister’s Office tells SBS News. “But that’s ScoMo.”
The PM’s softer side
Flying out from Sydney to Jakarta on ‘Wombat One’ will be a proud moment for Mr Morrison. He may glance down to admire the view across Botany Bay, scanning the southern Sydney electorate of Cook which he has so fiercely represented since 2007, and the home of his beloved NRL team the Cronulla Sharks.
It was in the Sutherland Shire’s glistening sand dunes I first met Mr Morrison, when he was a humble Opposition backbencher. Four years after the 2005 Cronulla riots he would join forces with neighbouring backbench Labor MP Jason Clare on a ‘Mateship Trek’ (an initiative Mr Morrison founded) leading young Australians from different backgrounds across the iconic Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.
I remember the now-prime minister, glasses fogged, t-shirt drenched, tearing up and down Cronulla’s towering Wanda Beach cliffs, laughing as he tried - and mostly did - keep up with the ‘clubbies’ (surf lifesavers) who were training for their trek.
We talked a lot during the six days in the Papuan jungle - about family, faith, and politics.
We cried together as the stories of brave young lives lost in defence of Australia were recounted.
“Australians are still dying” he would say through tears during his Anzac Day address in Isurava. Approximately 625 Australians died in the 1942 Battle of Kokoda.
The 2009 Mateship Trek. Source: Supplied
The young people on the trek, some of them Muslim, opened up and asked each other questions about the hijab, the riots and racism. And Mr Morrison talked affectionately about his wife Jenny and daughter Abbey on a visit to a local village.
It was an insight into a man most have only seen since as a tough-talking politician, and one he may be about to revisit as leader.
His first prime ministerial visit to the drought-ravaged Queensland town of Quilpie this week saw him crawling around on the play mat with school kids, discussing the newest member of the Morrison family.
“My little girl just got a dog. His name’s Buddy,” he said.
Scott Morrison meets with students at the Longreach School of Distance Education in Quilpie. Source: AAP
Trade the first test
Despite their mateship on the trek, Jason Clare, now the Shadow Trade Minister, will be closely watching Mr Morrison’s first international trip.
“Indonesia and Australia are like two next-door neighbours who barely look over the fence”, he told SBS News.
“There’s about 18,000 Australian companies that export to New Zealand at the moment and only 2,000 that currently export to Indonesia.”
“New Zealand’s a country of about 4.5 million, Indonesia’s a country of about 250 million - we’ve got to turn this around.”
Two-way trade was worth $8.5 billion last year, with a deficit of $3.5 billion on Indonesia's side, according to Indonesian data.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington earlier this year. Source: AAP
Mr Clare said the free trade negotiations began under former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard, who was herself deposed by the leader she replaced, Kevin Rudd.
“What happened in Canberra last week makes the Australian political system a joke - people in Australia and in Indonesia and around the world are asking ‘what the bloody hell just happened?’” Mr Clare said. “It makes us look like idiots.”
“The Australian people are angry about it and I suspect people all around the world are scratching their heads.”
Was Mr Clare surprised by his trekking partner’s accession to the prime ministership?
“Scott Morrison was a very determined person to make it up over the Kokoda Track,” he said. “It was obvious back then that he was determined to make it to the top job.”
Ahead of an election, Australian voters often give thought to what potential leaders will look like on the world stage. This week they’ll find out.
