hopeless case

You wonder how our Government can be so badly misreading the public mood about Shapelle Corby. Judging by the results of their intervention, it was a fairly half-hearted effort:

THE Howard Government's intervention in the Schapelle Corby drugs case appears to have had no effect, with the chief prosecutor declaring he had received no "overriding instructions" from Jakarta about the penalty he will seek in court.
Ida Bagus Wiswantanu said he had heard nothing about Justice Minister Chris Ellison's meeting in Jakarta last week with Indonesia's Attorney-General, Abdurrahman Saleh, during which Senator Ellison raised the prospect that Mr Saleh could intercede in the Corby trial to ask for a lighter sentence should she be found guilty of drug trafficking.

Sure, nobody can force the Indonesians to pass on information internally or to act on it. But why did the Australian Government leave it so late in the day before intervening? And why weren't they more effective in persuading the Indonesians of the importance of this case to Australia?