John Howard is to be commended for the billion-dollar aid package that he announced in Jakarta last night (media release | press conference) . I'm a bit guarded about some of his attitudes following the disaster, but on the whole I think he has handled things well to date. The initial offer of $10 million in aid was small, but the government has been adding substantially to that as the scope of the disaster became known. Today is the regional disaster response summit in Jakarta. We'll see how that goes.

A handful of things, minor details hopefully, make me feel a little uncomfortable. Howard seems unwilling to retire foreign debt to affected countries. Reading through transcripts on the Prime Ministerial web site, he doesn't appear to ever use the word "tsunami". Why? And his announcement of a national day of mourning on January 16, while commendable, seems worryingly superficial in his understanding of religious sensitivities.

Finally on Howard, I hope that Australia's involvement in Aceh is focused wholly on the humanitarian and reconstruction effort and that we do not become a party to any continuance of civil war there.

As for the other major political parties in this country, the absence of comment until yesterday from the ALP is disappointing. All that we expect at a minimum is a message of condolence and a show of bipartisan support for the Government (or a statement of dissent if appropriate). Mark Latham has said nothing. We learn today that he has had a relapse of pancreatitis, and I do wish him a speedy recovery, but why has his office not even issued a simple statement on his behalf?

ALP national secretary Tim Gartrell authorised a page of links relating to tsunami information and relief on the party web site on January 1. Senator Chris Evans, acting ALP leader while Latham and Jenny Macklin are away, issued a statement yesterday endorsing the National Day of Mourning.

But the Labor Party's best response to date has come from the keyboard of shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd, without doubt the most articulate man in Federal Parliament on South-East Asian affairs. Read his op-ed in Wednesday's The Australian.

Senator Lyn Allison of the Australian Democrats has been keeping abreast of events, but the Greens have been nowhere to be found until this morning. A quote from Senator Bob Brown supporting the Government's aid package a few hours ago is all that I have seen from them to date. It appears that their website will not be updated until their office reopens after Christmas on January 12.

Socialist Party Australia, while electorally almost a non-event in this country (Yarra Council notwithstanding), have been making frequent reports on the tsunami situation as well as launching their own appeal.