Surabaya's economy is growing at more than 10 per cent, which is double that of Indonesia. Credit:Getty Images But not now. Our "Border Force" as they are now called, dressed in their new grimly authoritarian black uniforms, advised us that customs is now working to "business hours", meaning that they close up shop at 6pm and if you want to use their services, for which the user pays anyway, you have to wait till the next morning. "Ridiculous," says Charlie, "I thought we were trying to encourage relations and trade with our near neighbours." Apparently the reason is that the modest fee for the aircraft to use the customs service is just under $100 while the overtime bill for the very friendly customs officers is $400-plus. It's an idiotic new ruling, based on false economy that will result in aircraft avoiding Broome causing a reduction of income to the airport and work for refuelers and others. And no more overtime for the workers.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox. Contrast that with Surabaya, our next port of call. It's a city of nearly 4 million people in the province of East Java, making it about the size of Melbourne and a bit smaller than Sydney. And while its history goes back to the 12th century, it's certainly not stuck in the past. Surabaya's economy is growing at more than 10 per cent, which is double that of Indonesia, three times that of Australia and nearly 10 times that of Great Britain and Germany. How do they do it?

Well, it's the exact opposite of our Border Force which I encountered in Broome and it all starts with the dynamic mayor of Surabaya. I spent an hour with this extraordinarily energetic official who is an amazing woman. Born in 1961 and mayor since 2010, Tri Rismaharini has transformed the city by hard work and timeless dedication. A good example was her response to seeing hundreds of people queueing for doctors at 5.30am knowing that the doors won't open for another two hours. This sort of time wasting inconvenience was not good enough for the 157-centimetre dynamo they call Mayor Risma. She ordered a city-wide electronic system of public consoles that allows the population to not only make a booking, but see where the next available doctor is located. The unproductive and disruptive queues disappeared overnight. And of course she didn't stop there. Her package of social reforms concentrates on free education and health care for the poorer sections of the community and she places a particular emphasis on children. And where there's an empty space, she has built parks with Wi-Fi access, libraries, childcare, fitness and other sporting facilities.

She fixed local flooding by turning the cemeteries into water absorption spaces and diverted water into green lanes along main roads which is turning the city into a forest, with the trees sponsored by individual citizens. As for families, she decreed that when the kids come home from school, they had to spend an hour with their parents to do their homework. And higher education has become an enormous business. Surabaya boasts 16 universities and tertiary institutions. Louise can't believe it. "Australia has eight times the population and only 40 universities!" I was gobsmacked by Mayor Risma's achievements and her energy and later that evening, over dinner with her executives, I found out more about her work ethic.

One of her deputies showed me his mobile phone that revealed a typical day. His first text from Mayor Risma came in at 3.47am as he and other city officials were getting their wake-up call. The text included the mayor's observations for the day before she prepared for her daily tour of the city at 5.30am. Her messages, including photos, continued all day until 10.07pm. It is clear that Mayor Risma is headed for higher office. It is also clear that Australia is going to have to stop working business hours if we are going to match our near neighbours. If we don't, within a decade we will be out of business.