Mr Robb held talks during his whirlwind one-day visit on Australia’s trade relationship with Indonesia, hot on the heels of new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s new ministry announcement on Sunday.

The cabinet reshuffle has seen Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck elevated to be Mr Robb’s assistant minister.

Senator Colbeck was the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture under the Abbott regime but was also named the new Minister for Tourism and International Education in yesterday’s appointments.

In Jakarta, Mr Robb met with key ministerial counterparts including Indonesia’s new Trade Minister, Thomas Lembong along with ministers for industry and communications.

He also held talks with prominent members of the Indonesian business community, including CEOs from leading banks.

Reports in August said Mr Lembong was considering issuing up to an additional 300,000 head in cattle import quotas for the remainder of the year, after the numbers were dramatically slashed earlier this year.

The reduction to 50,000 head for the third quarter – where industry expected 200,000 – subsequently stressed Indonesia’s domestic beef supply which increased local prices significantly.

Last week, Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council (ALEC) chair Simon Crean and CEO Alison Penfold met with Mr Robb to discuss and acknowledged his efforts to engage on live cattle trade issues.

Ms Penfold said during the meeting they also repeated public statements about the need to build greater certainty in the trade to Indonesia, through annualised permits.

She said ALEC had not met with Indonesian officials since early in the year when they first advocated for the introduction of annualised permits.

“We have so far seen no change in approach from Indonesia and as such are waiting on the release of quarter four permits,” she said.

“Indonesia feedlot are fast running out of cattle and shipping capacity is tightening up so the longer Indonesia delays permits the more difficult it will become to export cattle into Indonesia in October.”

A statement from Mr Robb said that Mr Turnbull felt it was important that the planned visit proceeded, given the government’s commitment to strengthening the relationship with “our close neighbour and the largest economy in Southeast Asia”.

Mr Robb will use the visit to promote Indonesia Australia Business Week on November 17-20 this year, during which he will return to Indonesia with more than 200 business people as part of the largest-ever Australian business delegation.

Indonesia is Australia’s 12th largest trading partner.