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About the author
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
The Lowy Institute Poll has surveyed Australians on their views about Indonesia for 15 years, and their answers continue to demonstrate a lack of knowledge about our largest neighbour. Lowy Institute polling has consistently shown that most Australians do not view Indonesia as a democracy. In 2019, despite Indonesia’s presidential election campaign taking place at the same time as the fieldwork for the Poll, only 34% of Australians agree that ‘Indonesia is a democracy’.
A majority of Australians (61%, up nine points from 2018) say ‘Australia is managing its relationship with Indonesia well’. As in previous years, most Australians agree that Indonesia is an important economy to Australia (62%). However, around a third of Australians (37%) say that the Indonesian government has worked hard to fight terrorism, up five points from last year.
