"Riding the twin horses of America and China is difficult for Australia and will be more so as the US seeks to contain China, with what it has been led to believe, by policy makers and near do well influence junkies of the Australian/American Leadership Dialogue and right wing 'think tanks', is Australian support and compliance".

Unfortunately, your summary of just who is concerned about the rise of China is a bit narrow. You might want to read some of the left-wign blogs which are quite concerned with the rise of china and its impact on labour condiitions around the world

Bob Carr has given me cause for optimism. Once he was named as our next Minister of Foreign Affairs, he immediately named Indonesia as a place of major Australian interest.
He's on record questioning the deployment of US Marines to Darwin, but Cabinet solidarity has muted him there.
Drones on Cocos have come after his appointment, so I doubt he has much room on that one.
He has managed one free kick on the War on Drugs.
Hopefully he will reign in the big dollars Rudd, who was determined to strut the world stage, earmarked for our bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. That money could be better spent in SE Asia, our neighbourhood.
I think (and hope) DFAT now has a better ear and mouth in Cabinet.

Australian foreign policy has in the past been shaped by Ministers and bureaucrats without much input from other key stakeholders from research, business, industry, the community and diaspora communities. The time has come for innovation and greater social inclusion of all key stakeholders in Australian foreign policy making and implementation.

We hope that Senator Bob Carr will show leadership and use his deep experience and learned outlook to facilitate the positive transformation of DFAT and the policies it implements.

The Macedonian community in Australia expects the Australian Government and the Australian Parliament to abandon its policy of delegitimising Macedonia just to appease ultra-nationalists in discredited Hellenic Republic and its lobby in Australia.

Indonesia is indeed the 'elephant in the room' that nobody wants to talk about but anybody who thinks Australia will not eventually get dragged into another 'East Timor' style 'confrontasi' with Indonesia over West Papua is an unrepentant optimist!
We owe the Papuans bigtime over our craven assent to the 'act of free choice'and the rape & pillage now occurring, fuelled by Indon intransigence & hubris, will ensure that the UN will finally have to take notice in spite of tantrums in Jakarta or agitating by Freeport McMoRan in Washington.
Further clouding the issue will be sympathy in PNG for 'wontoks' across the border and cross border incursions may well see PNG invoking defence treaties with Australia which we will no doubt strenuously try to avoid. We left PNG as a solvent & functioning nation which it is demonstrably now not! Welcome to the joys of being a regional power, we may yet be glad of the US marines!

We just want Indonsesia to jail and kill refugees for us and are prepared to spend as much as it takes for that to happen.

The malaise afflicting DFAT is symptomatic of the pressures currently facing the public service as a whole. Instead of being seen as a trustworthy, impartial and competent advocate of Australia's national interest, politicians have increasingly been undermining and backstabbing the public service, listening to advice only when it suits them, and publically criticising and de-funding it in order to make political gains.

Public servants meanwhile have reacted to this now chronic dysfunctionality in the relationship between themselves and the politicians, and are now placing "frank and fearless" analysis as secondary to trying to second-guess politicians' intentions. Politicisation and job insecurity serve to curtail any risk-taking behaviour and to make public servants very protective of their turf, such that they will hesitate to say anything to anyone unless absolutely necessary.

It's a shame that what is essentially a clash of egos and a love of expediency directly causes so much damage to regional relations. Surely anyone working for the government does so for the principal reason that there are more important things in the world than just their own position?