When Indonesian President Joko Widodo delivers a planned address to a joint sitting of Parliament in Canberra on Monday, he might just have convinced his own legislators to approve the long-awaited free trade deal between the two countries – or it might still be in what his government has described as "the final stages of ratification".

Late on Tuesday, Commission VI in the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) approved the bill to ratify the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA). It agreed the bill would be passed into law.