I remember back in the early 80s when the Indonesians sent back a plane of passengers going to Bali. Then Foreign Minister Bill Hayden came out with a well considered response, urging calm and understanding etc etc. But then in stark contrast, Prime Minister Bob Hawke came out furious with comments along the lines of that this was a disgrace and a totally unacceptable way to treat Australian citizens etc etc.
There weren't any such problems for the next three decades. Plainly, the Indonesian Government could have give Tiger Air an ultimatum that from a certain day a month in the future, it would no longer be allowed to fly into the country, and thus have avoided making Australian tourists the meat in the sandwich.
Maybe I missed it, but were there any Bob Hawke style strong comments about treating Australian citizens with contempt by our current Foreign Minister and Prime Minister? I haven't seen any so far.
Regards,
Renato