Bali Nine: Barnaby Joyce says death penalty 'discussion' needed in wake of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan executions

Updated

As many grieve the deaths by firing squad of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has called for a "discussion" about the death penalty.

Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, were shot dead on the prison island of Nusakambangan early on Wednesday morning. They had been sentenced to death for their parts in a plot to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin into Australia.

In response Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australia was "withdrawing" its ambassador Ian Grigson from Jakarta for consultations and had suspended ministerial contact with Indonesia.

Indonesia's attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo has dismissed the withdrawal as a "temporary reaction" while foreign minister Retno Marsudi has said there are no plans for Indonesia to withdraw its ambassador in Canberra.

Mr Joyce told Lateline many Australians supported capital punishment.

"I do get approached by people saying, 'Well, that might be your view, Barnaby, that you don't support the death penalty, but that's not our view'," he said.

Saying he was "startled" by such sentiments, he added: "I think that the discussion we're having about others we should also be carrying out domestically."

The Agriculture Minister, who has been working to re-establish the live cattle trade with Indonesia, also downplayed the decision to withdraw Australia's ambassador.

Announcing the move in the immediate wake of the executions yesterday, Mr Abbott said the move was "very unusual, indeed unprecedented", and said "I don't want to minimise the gravity of what we've done".

"I don't think it's a case of withdraw," Mr Joyce told Lateline.

"I think the technical term is coming home for consultations."

However, he refused to rule out the prospect of Indonesia reducing cattle imports in retaliation for Australia's diplomatic moves.

"That's for the Indonesian government," he said.

"They are a sovereign nation. They're a democracy."

Indonesia's vice president Jusuf Kalla has been reported in the state news agency as saying that trade between his country and Australia would not be disrupted by the ambassador's withdrawal.

First person: The mood in Jakarta The row over the executions of Chan and Sukumaran isn't front-page news in Indonesia, says the ABC's Helen Brown:



[The recall of the ambassador] is not front page news on all the papers ... but there is an awareness of it.



There is certainly chatter in the media about it, and about how people think Australia might respond and then what might happen here.



So, on both sides public feeling [is what] the politicians are trying to manage.



It was interesting that on TV in particular there has been quite a lot of conversation about the case of the Filipino woman who was given a last-minute reprieve.



That has raised questions in Indonesia about the death penalty and about how it is applied and if this really is about drug trafficking.



Giving her a reprieve so that she can testify in this trial suggests that perhaps these sorts of legal issues need to be looked at, so it's gaining traction that way, which is quite interesting.



Academics often say the only way to have this conversation in Indonesia about changing the death penalty is to have ordinary Indonesians talking about it, and they've certainly latched onto this case of the Filipino woman who was meant to be executed the other night.



But it is not generating the sort of perhaps potential backlash that we might see in Australia, and the next few days, I guess, will be telling as to whether or not that goes any further.



Some displeasure has been expressed about Australia, but it is not strong yet.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia was right to argue that the state should not take someone's life.

"We asked the Indonesian president to be strong, to show the strength that comes from being able to show mercy to somebody who has been convicted of a capital offence and we are bitterly disappointed, we all are," he said.

Mr Turnbull also said the decision to withdraw Australia's ambassador to Indonesia was a measured response to the executions.

"The relationship with Indonesia is important obviously and we have a strong relationship with Indonesia, we have a difference of opinion over this and it's important the Indonesians understand the strength of our feelings," he said.

On Wednesday Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said Indonesia's handlings of the executions "reeks of a calculated snub at Australia".

"I think we face a situation in Indonesia were we have a president who's in the weaker situation, and sometimes people in weak situations take action which they think may exhibit strength," he said.

"If that has been the case here, then as I've said earlier, this is a serious miscalculation on behalf of the president of Indonesia.

"Australians are friendly towards the Indonesian people, but in this case we believe their leadership has let them down."

Indonesia is Australia's 12th biggest trading partner.

The last three years have seen negotiations between Indonesia and both Labor and Coalition governments toward a so-called Comprehensive Economic Partnership between to two nations, and there is a bipartisan goal in Canberra toward lifting Indonesia to Australia's 10th biggest partner.

Chan and Sukurmaran's bodies are now in the process of being returned to Australia for burial.

Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, federal-government, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, australia, indonesia

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