By ABC's Barrie Cassidy

Photo: If the leader of the world's superpower can apologise to Germany's Angela Merkel, why can't the leader of a middle ranking power apologise to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono? (Reuters: Beawiharta)

A Labor government created the problem with Indonesia, but only the Prime Minister can fix it. So far, he has done nothing other than place fresh impediments in the path of a solution, writes Barrie Cassidy.

Tony Abbott insists he'll have a foreign policy with a Jakarta focus and not a Geneva focus. To this point, Geneva will be well pleased.

To be fair, the Prime Minister was placed in a no-win situation by the previous government on the Indonesian spy scandal.

But that is no excuse for making a bad situation even worse. There were so many options to consider short of an apology, and he took none of them.

In the competitive world of domestic politics, it would have galled Abbott that the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, should point to the Barack Obama precedent; that is, concede, apologise, call for a review and promise it would never happen again.

Galling because the intelligence agencies breached the boundaries under Labor's watch; galling because the Prime Minister was protecting the secrecy doctrine behind international spying; and galling because nobody likes to be criticised when they are doing their best to clean up after somebody else.

But all that aside, so far, Abbott’s best is not good enough.

If the leader of the world's superpower can swallow his pride and apologise to Germany's Angela Merkel, then why can't the leader of a middle ranking power apologise to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or at least behave a little more conciliatory?

Abbott is right to argue that Australia should not apologise for "reasonable intelligence gathering". But tapping the phones of the Indonesian President and his wife goes beyond reasonable.

And to try to justify the tapping with talk of "protecting our country", implies that in some way, Australia regards Indonesia, the target of the taps, as a threat.

Abbott is handling the issue as he would a political fight with his opponents, when it is a diplomatic dispute that needs fixing.

No matter how the arguments stack up, it is Indonesia, not Australia, that feels genuinely aggrieved. That has to be dealt with.

The issue is being framed in the media as a black and white one: should Australia apologise or not?

But that is just one part of it. Abbott's fundamental failing so far has been his refusal to pick up the phone and talk the issue through with the President. That's what friends do when problems arise; they talk about it.

And he has compounded the issue by taking too long to respond to the President's demands for a letter of explanation.

To this point, the rhetoric has only exacerbated the problem. Abbott was wrong to use the term "if" when talking about Indonesia being upset. Clearly they are. He was wrong to say he regrets they are embarrassed by the media reporting. They say it should be Australia who is embarrassed. And not by the media reporting, but by the nature of the allegation: that the spying involved tapping the mobile phones of the President and his wife.

The Coalition's supporters among the shock jocks can shout from the rooftops that Australia should tell the Indonesians to "get stuffed".

But they have to then accept the consequences.

If the boats start arriving again in big numbers, or even worse, if an intelligence sharing breakdown leads to a terrorist attack, will they feel better having told the Indonesians to "get stuffed"?

If Australian beef producers go to the wall when orders are cancelled, will they feel better because they told the Indonesians to "get stuffed"?

Indonesia is an ally, a friend, a neighbour, and an important one, as Abbott concedes. He needs to say something to the domestic audience to put some of these idiots back in their boxes before they do any more damage.

A Labor government created the problem, but only the Prime Minister can fix it. So far, he has done nothing other than place fresh impediments in the path of a solution.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders. View his full profile here

So far, Abbott’s best is not good enough - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)