Jakarta: Indonesia has given the Australian government a draft proposal for how the remaining Bali Nine prisoners could be transferred home in the most tangible sign yet that it intends to call time on near-20 years the men have spent in Bali and Java jails.

Standing beside Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in Jakarta on Tuesday, Indonesian minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said his government was not after anything in return for the proposed transfer and it was a gesture of goodwill from new president Prabowo Subianto.

Yusril, the coordinating minister for law, human rights and corrections, said he hoped an agreement could be reached this month, but the fact that neither country had the legal machinery to facilitate a prisoner transfer was complicating the outcome.

“Of course, it depends on the negotiations, and I understand there are some legal matters in respect of the Australian government, and the Indonesian government too,” Yusril said. “This is purely good intentions, and discretion, taken by President Prabowo Subianto.”

Burke said he had just seen the document from the Indonesians and would not comment on what issues the two countries still needed to work through.

“The fact that was handed to us is a significant step forward and shows significant goodwill,” Burke said. “We now need to work through the issues within each country and we’ll be doing that without delay.”

Australians Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen are still serving life sentences after they were caught trying to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia in 2005. They have spent their youths in Indonesian jails.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015 for their role in the scheme, while Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died from cancer in 2018. Renae Lawrence, the only female of the nine, was released in 2018.