AFTA UPDATE

THE 7.5 magnitude earthquake that shook the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi on 28 Sep and caused a devastating tsunami continues to take its toll on the island. Reports say that at least 2,000 people have passed away, as searches continue for thousands of missing people.

This is a significant and dreadful event for the nation of Indonesia.

Some 65,000 houses and buildings have been destroyed and around 70,000 residents have been displaced. These numbers are staggering and the city of Palu may never be the same. Bali, which fortunately has not been impacted and is located over 1,500kms away from the incident, continues to be open and trading as normal.

The Australian Government Smartraveller website has not changed the overall travel advisory for Indonesia including Bali, but has of course increased it to a “Reconsider your Need” level for central Sulawesi and Papua provinces. These things are always difficult to really understand and from the level of enquiry that we have received at AFTA it seems that some consumers and perhaps some reporters have not done enough research to really understand what is going on.

Given that Sulawesi is not known as a significant tourist destination for Australians, my advice is always to refer people to the Smartraveller.gov.au website to help give a clearer understanding of the situation.

It is so unfortunate how the island nation of Indonesia is impacted by these natural disasters, and it is very difficult to see the pictures and news stories covering this problem.

If you want to help, there are a number of ways to donate to efforts and the best way to choose is to simply google “donate to Indonesia tsunami”.

In my case I have elected to support the Red Cross - this is of course a personal choice. It is difficult to know what to do in these early weeks. It is a story that I am sure we will continue to hear about, and it is good to know that the Federal Government is already supporting with emergency funding and other resources, something that Australia is good at.

Our thoughts and prayers will be with the people of Palu in the coming months and perhaps longer as the clean-up and repair work gets underway.