Indonesia's election and the future of Australia-Indonesia relations

The Perth USAsia Centre, in cooperation with the Indonesia Institute, is pleased to invite you to a briefing on Indonesia’s election results.

On 14 February 2024, more than 200 million Indonesians will go to the ballot box in one of the biggest single-day elections in the world. Their votes will decide Indonesia’s new president and his vice, as well as members of the country's legislature.

Indonesia is key to Australia’s future, and a central part of its economic and strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. The future trajectory of Australia’s relationship with Indonesia will be significantly shaped by the make-up of the new government.

Join us to hear an expert panel discuss the election outcomes as well as their economic and geopolitical implications for Australia.

About the panellists

Robbie Gaspar – President, Indonesia Institute

Robbie Gaspar is passionate about building cross-cultural ties between Indonesia and Australia with a long history of supporting the bilateral relationship in business and sport and was the first Australian footballer to play professionally in Indonesia.

He played in Indonesia for almost eight years, including for Indonesia’s most prestigious football club, Persib Bandung, and actively promotes sports diplomacy between the two countries.

He graduated from the ACICIS in-country program and spent time at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, where he developed and assisted with implementing their first-ever Sports Diplomacy Strategy for the Embassy.

Robbie was awarded Life Membership of Professional Footballers Australia for his contribution to supporting professional football players across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. He sat on the Australian Indonesian Business Council Western Australia committee for over five years and held the chair role from 2020 to 2021.

In 2017 Robbie was the recipient of the Australia Indonesia Award for the Sports Category, one of only two people in Western Australia to receive an Australian Indonesia Award. As President of the Indonesia Institute, he aims to improve and build a more sustainable relationship between Indonesia and Australia.

Dr Jacqui Baker – Lecturer, Murdoch University

Jacqui Baker is a Lecturer in Southeast Asian Politics and a Senior Fellow at Murdoch University’s Indo-Pacific Research Centre where her research focuses on the political economy of development in Indonesia, with particular attention to issues of inequality, security and law.

She is an editor at the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, better known as BKI, and co-host of the University of Melbourne’s ‘Talking Indonesia’ podcast.

Jacqui holds a Master’s in Social Anthropology and PhD in Comparative Government from the London School of Economics.

Dr Pia Dannhauer – Research and Program Associate, Perth USAsia Centre

Dr Pia Dannhauer is the lead analyst for Southeast Asia at the Perth USAsia Centre.

Pia’s PhD thesis on Indonesia’s leadership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was accepted at Griffith University in 2023.

An English, German and Indonesian speaker, she previously worked for the Asia Pacific Research and Advice Network – an internal think tank that supports EU decision makers.

Pia holds a Bachelor’s degree in international studies with a focus on South and Southeast Asia, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, as well as a joint Master’s in International Relations from three German universities.

Kyle Springer – Country Engagement Manager (Indonesia & Vietnam), Infrastructure Advisory, Ernst & Young

Kyle Springer is a Manager for the Infrastructure Advisory at EY where he oversees Indonesia and Vietnam as part of DFAT’s Partnership for Infrastructure (P4I) initiative.

Before joining P4I, Kyle was a Policy Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, where he focussed particularly on Australia’s relations with Indonesia and Vietnam.

He previously worked as Southeast Asia researcher with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and was part of a Gates Foundation project focussed on health in the region. During his time in Washington, Kyle also worked as a program assistant with the Austrade at the Australian Embassy.

Kyle holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Western Australia, and obtained a Bachelor in Criminal Justice from California State University.

Dr Ian Wilson – Senior Lecturer, Murdoch University

Dr Ian Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and Academic Chair of Global Security program at Murdoch University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow with Murdoch’s Indo-Pacific Research Centre.

Ian has over 25 years of experience researching Indonesian politics and society. He has worked collaboratively with a number of organisations such as Indonesian Corruption Watch, AusAID, and the US Institute for Peace.

His consultancy work supported policy making in both Indonesian and Australian institutions, including contributions to the Australia Indonesian Partnership for Justice (AIPJ), policy input to the Indonesian Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, and DFAT.

Ian regularly provides commentary in national and international media and his work on the relationship between power, violence and representation in Indonesia has been widely published.

Dr Kate O'Shaughnessy – Research Director, Perth USAsia Centre

Dr Kate O’Shaughnessy leads the Centre’s suite of research programs across the Indo-Pacific.

She brings to the Centre an academic background in Indonesian language and history, along with 16 years’ experience with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Her public sector experience spans providing policy advice to government on Australia’s interests in the Indian Ocean, to supporting development of the Australian aid budget, to intelligence analysis.

During her diplomatic career, she served in Ghana, as well as deployments to Lebanon, France and Nigeria. Immediately before joining the Centre in 2022, she was Australia’s High Commissioner to Mauritius and Seychelles, and Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros, advocating Australia’s Indo-Pacific vision to stakeholders across the western Indian Ocean.

Originally from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and PhD in Indonesian history from the University of Western Australia. Her work on gender in Indonesia during the Suharto era – Gender, State and Social Power In Contemporary Indonesia – was published by Routledge as part of its Women in Asia Series. She speaks Indonesian and French.