Greenland is why Rudd’s DC replacement must be a diplomat |
Trump’s Washington runs on proximity, power and unpredictability. Australia’s next ambassador must be chosen for clarity, skill and seriousness.
Whoever Anthony Albanese appoints to replace Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the US is likely to have a tough task explaining to the White House why Australia stands with Europe to resist Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland.
But that’s far from the only reason this diplomatic appointment carries more than the usual freight. The selection will symbolise everything about what this government thinks of the current and future trajectory of the alliance and the United States itself.
This is not the time to send a Les Patterson-type figure or to drag an old Labor mare from the stables for one last trot on the diplomatic circuit. Nor is it the time to think that a golf shirt is the sartorial ticket to presidential proximity. What drivel.
There is a time and a place for political appointments to Washington – Paul Keating’s appointment of Don Russell in 1993 to have his right-hand man under then-president Bill Clinton’s nose to help shape the APEC leaders summit was a success. Russell had access.
Albanese must now send a professional diplomat. The times demand it.
In the past quarter-century, the two most effective ambassadors in Washington have been seasoned diplomats: Michael Thawley and Dennis Richardson. They turned up with that critical ingredient of respectful neutrality and crucially, no........