Tim Swanston is an ABC foreign correspondent and video journalist, based in Jakarta. Tim covers Indonesia and several other South-East Asian countries, with a particular interest in social issues, conflict, security and the environment.
Tim was previously based in Port Moresby, covering Papua New Guinea. He has also reported from the Middle East, the United Kingdom and East Africa. Earlier in his career, Tim worked as a cross-platform reporter and video journalist in Western Sydney, Brisbane and Far North Queensland.
After the alleged wire-tapping of the president and some of his most trusted allies, some experts wonder if it signals a growing rift between Indonesia's political heavyweights.
Indonesian police detain three senior police generals on suspicion of illegally wire-tapping the phones of President Prabowo Subianto and other prominent figures between 2025 and 2026.
Indonesia has spent billions constructing a new capital city, but few residents have moved in.
A small town is searching for answers after two students were shot dead at school. All signs point to a new wave of extremism in the form of a little-known online community.
Indonesia's flagship free school-meals program is facing growing criticism after more students suffer food poisoning, prompting calls for legal action and greater accountability.
Friends of Australian man Damien John Shaw describe their shock and horror after he apparently killed himself and his two children at their Bali home on Sunday.
An Australian man and his two young children have been found dead in a home in Bali in what police say appears to be a murder-suicide.
Indonesian police investigate a suspected murder-suicide after the bodies of an Australian man and his two children were found in a home in Bali.
Indonesia's Orangutans are under increasing threat from peatland and forest fires raging across the island of Borneo.
Animal conservation groups have rescued many of the critically endangered apes as deliberately lit fires threaten their habitat.
On Borneo, many believe fires threatening critically endangered orangutans are being deliberately lit to clear land for palm oil plantations.
For three exhausting months, Andri Susanto and his crew have been fighting raging fires on the island of Borneo — and blazes are taking a toll across the region.
Indonesian police say they are investigating four Australians over the death of a Perth man following a Kuta bar fight.
"I am physically unable to handle this many patients alone," came the viral plea from the young doctor working alone in one of the earthquake's worst-affected areas.
Rescue teams are combing the rubble of buildings for survivors after the magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck eastern Indonesia.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake strikes off the coast of Indonesia in the Flores region, damaging buildings and triggering an early tsunami warning that has since been cancelled.
In recent years, a surge of Chinese coast guard ships into the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone – has put China and the Philippines into direct confrontation
Foreign Correspondent journeys to one of the world's most contested islands where China's shadowy 'maritime militia' lurks just off the coast.
Indonesia's rupiah has fallen to historic lows against the US dollar, causing damage "in most of the economy", analysts say.
While the war in the Middle East has cast a cloud over Southeast Asian economies, Indonesia's rupiah has weakened to historical lows against the US dollar. Some Indonesian economists are sounding the alarm - and say the currency decline is mostly because of domestic factors, including uncertainty over government policies.
The families of six people, including two Australians, who died from suspected mass methanol poisoning at a Laos hostel have described the outcome of a 20-month police investigation into the incident as "false".
Police in Indonesia are more regularly busting baby trafficking and illegal adoption rings, with officials worried poverty may be driving the practice.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has demanded Australia stop "exaggerating tensions and inciting confrontation" over the South China Sea after Penny Wong warned Beijing against "destabilising" conduct in the region.
Topic: Defence and National Security
The foreign ministers of the United States, Australia and China are in the Philippines for an annual meeting with the countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Vision posted online by the Philippines Coast Guard shows Filipino and Chinese personnel briefly engaging each other from inflatable boats, with the Philippines accusing China of assaulting one of its navy staff.
The choke on the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz has hit Asian economies hard.
