Australia will rebuild Indonesian immigration offices in the tsunami-shattered province of Aceh to improve ties between the countries and bolster the fight against people-smuggling, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said.

Following a meeting in Jakarta with Indonesia's Minister for Law and Human Rights, Hamid Awaludin, Senator Vanstone said Canberra would immediately give $300,000 for the rebuilding of the offices.

"It will help improve cooperation and will be outside the package Australia has already made available to Indonesia for reconstruction," Senator Vanstone said.

She and Mr Awaludin signed an agreement to improve border control and immigration arrangements between Australia and Indonesia.

Despite a fall-off in asylum seeker arrivals since Australia adopted a tough stance against unauthorised boat arrivals following a stand-off over refugee hopefuls on the Norwegian freighter Tampa in 2001, neither country could afford to relax, she said.

"One of the mistakes that humans tend to make is to judge a situation as it is and then be comfortable," she said. "Equally, the opportunity to make the mistake is saying, 'well, look, the boats have largely stopped coming to Australia, so we fixed it' and walk away. That would be a mistake. We are consistently working on ensuring that the achievement we have made between us is maintained, and that requires ongoing cooperation."

Australia and Indonesia have clashed over responsibility for illegal arrivals, with Jakarta refusing to be a "buffer zone" to protect Australia's northern coast. Aceh was one of the hardest-hit regions in the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26.