Yeah... Just because they are currently more worried with China's rise than us... it's understandable that they would prefer to have a more solid buffer state between China and themselves... and for that, they have somewhat tempered down their media attacks on us regarding Papua nowadays, probably preferring to spread Xinjiang "genocide news" rather than Papuan "genocide news"...
Had this happened in the late 90's / early 2000's, they would've been relentless in their smear campaigns against us.. I still remember reading some Aussie news articles during the time of the East Timor referendum, it's as if we are some demon hellbent on Timorese genocide... almost no different with the articles we read today regarding China and Xinjiang... and then later how the heroic ADF come to the rescue against the genocidal TNI..
Let's not forget that most of this Papuan pro-separatist groups are operating freely from Australia and from their client states in the Pacific (and also the UK), and even received recognition and support from some of their lawmakers... So I have no doubt that, had the Aussies not be so preoccupied with China's rise today, we will the ones that are on the receiving end of this type of smear campaigns, and much more "news" similar to the one posted here will be propagated... and it can still happen, if and when Australia stabilizes their relationship with China, they might then turn their attention back to us...