The Australia-Indonesia Youth Association (AIYA) is proud to announce the release of the 2016 Member Survey. As part of our mission to connect, inform and inspire, a regular survey is conducted to provide an in-depth analysis of the issues and perspectives of young people engaged in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.

This report enables policy makers, educators, businesses and other individuals to access and draw their own views about youth issues in the bilateral relationship. The survey covered everything from your thoughts on the state of the government-to-government relationship, to your opinions on the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), scholarship schemes such as the New Colombo Plan, and other ideas to improve Australia-Indonesia ties.

AIYA would like to thank all our members who completed the survey earlier this year, and invite you to delve into the report and hear the perspectives of your fellow AIYA members. Conducted from March-April 2016, this AIYA Survey attracted close to 500 respondents, with the number of Australians and Indonesians roughly equal, while 70% of respondents were 20-35 years of age.

Please download your copy of the report here.

Some key findings of the survey are:

  • Australian and Indonesian respondents believe the Australian government is handling its relationship with Indonesia increasingly well. In our 2014 survey, Australian respondents in particular believed that Australia was doing a poor job of managing its relationship with Indonesia. In 2016, there was a significantly increased view that the government-to-government relationship is going well, and Indonesian respondents were particularly positive when it came to how both governments are managing the relationship.
  • Indonesian and Australian respondents agree that education is the most important element of the bilateral relationship. In order to strengthen the relationship, AIYA respondents — both Indonesian and Australian — place the greatest importance on education, followed by government-to-government relations and economic and business engagement. Environmental management and transnational crime issues were seen as lower priorities. Further views about the current educational opportunities available to young Australians and Indonesians — such as the New Colombo Plan and the Darmasiswa program — are explored in the policy section of the report.
  • AIYA survey respondents, especially Indonesian respondents, are increasingly optimistic about the effectiveness of the IA-CEPA, which is currently in the fourth round of negotiations.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, so please download the report, and find out more! Any questions, comments or media enquiries can be forwarded to Sam Bashfield at [email protected] or Nicholas Mark at [email protected].