SCHAPELLE CORBY MAY BE IN AUSTRALIA BY CHRISTMAS

SCHAPELLE Corby's chances of returning to Australia to serve out the
rest of her 20-year sentence have been dramatically boosted following
confidential negotiations between the Rudd Government and Indonesia.

Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus has held high-level talks in Jakarta
aimed at finalising a prisoner transfer treaty with Indonesia that
could see Corby return home within a year.

Mr Debus met Indonesia's Attorney-General and Foreign Minister a week
ago to hammer out details of the proposed treaty, which has languished
over the past 18 months after negotiations stalled on several crucial
details.

A signed treaty would allow Corby and at least three members of the
Bali Nine to serve out the remainder of their sentences in Australian
jails, close to family and in conditions far more comfortable than
those in Bali's Kerobokan prison.

"The Government is committed to securing a workable and effective
prisoner transfer agreement with Indonesia," Mr Debus told The Daily
Telegraph.

"I raised the matter at the highest levels with the Attorney-General
and the Foreign Minister. The talks were constructive and our two
countries are making progress towards resolving some of the ongoing
concerns."

Corby, arrested in 2004 at Bali's Denpasar airport after 4.2kg of
marijuana was found in her bodyboard bag, was jailed for 20 years but
has always maintained she was innocent.

She was denied an expected reduction in her sentence at Christmas
because she had been found in possession of a mobile phone several
months earlier.

Six weeks ago her father died in Queensland after a long battle with
cancer. In the past some members of her family have suggested she
would prefer to remain in Kerobokan prison rather than return to Australia.

But friends have since dismissed these claims, saying Corby would
welcome any chance to be close to her Gold Coast family, possibly in a
women's correctional centre near Brisbane.

Corby has described Kerobokan prison as a "disgusting slum" with no
running water or power.

A plan last year to move her to another jail in Java hundreds of
kilometres away was shelved when authorities declared that conditions
at Kerobokan had improved.

It is believed Mr Debus is not the first cabinet minister to raise the
possibility of signing off on a prisoner transfer deal since the
Government's election victory in November.

A succession of government figures have visited Jakarta since Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd made it clear he wanted relations between
Australia and Indonesia to improve.

Signing off on a new prisoner transfer treaty is seen as a crucial
test in the new relationship.

But several sticking points with the Indonesian Government remain,
including how to marry the Australian system of applying parole
conditions with the Indonesian practice of handing out remissions for
good behaviour.

While the new treaty is expected to be applied retrospectively, it
will not provide any comfort for members of the Bali Nine heroin ring
currently on death row.

Six of the nine face death by firing squad, including ringleaders
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, along with drug mule Scott Rush.

Indonesia has asserted that death row prisoners be excluded from any
prisoner transfer treaty because Australia does not practise capital
punishment.