1/ symbolic repayment ... I think he means that the campaign by these Indonesians is NOT a serious attempt to raise the ~$1B dollars but more of a public gesture to show their dissatisfaction with Tony Abbott suggesting that our aid was not a condition-free donation but rather a method to buy diplomatic capital that we could cash in later on .... i.e. cash our charity in now for Andrew and Muyaran.
2/ maybe he's never heard of it before ... so? ... he's heard of each word before and through the magic of thinking put them together to make a concept that neatly expresses the idea ... "symbolic" as in NOT literal (they don't have a hope in hell of raising the exact figure but they're making a show of it to express themselves) and "repayment" as in they're trying to say, "take it back .... if you're only giving us aid to cash it in later on, we would rather not have it at all!"
any other questions? ... would you like me to explain why you shouldn't mix your meds?
