Australia House, home to the Australian High Commission in London, United Kingdom (Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

London calling, political patronage, and the diplomatic curtain

The Foreign minister’s pledge to prioritise diplomats over politicians hasn’t extended to breaking one posting tradition.

Daniel Flitton

11 November 20253 min read

It was with diplomatic appointment number eight that Penny Wong made a notable pledge.

“The Albanese government is reversing the previous government’s approach and rebalancing appointments towards qualified senior officials, consistent with position requirements and community expectations,” the Foreign Minister, then only a few months into the job, declared in a September 2022 press release.

It appeared a promise of no more politicians for plum postings.

Until the next paragraph.

“In certain circumstances there is a clear advantage for Australia to be represented by people who have had distinguished careers beyond the public service, such as businesspeople and former parliamentarians.”

So it was that Wong dispatched to the United Kingdom one Stephen Smith, himself a former foreign minister and 20-year Labor party parliamentary veteran. It took chutzpah on Wong’s part to announce the reversal of the Morrison government’s habit of sending retired politicians to lie abroad with an announcement that a politician would be representing Australia in London.

“The eminence of Australia’s relationship with the United Kingdom has long been reflected in the appointment of a former senior Cabinet minister,” said Wong at the time.

Only now Smith’s replacement is to be a former state premier, Jay Weatherill, from South Australia. It was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who announced on Monday that Weatherill will take up the post in the new year and said “is an entirely appropriate appointment” having championed defence industries and being “well placed to take forward AUKUS”. Adelaide, the South Australian capital, is the site where the government hopes the nuclear-powered submarines will be eventually built.

In Australian bureaucratic parlance, a PSM is a recipient of the Public Service Medal, but in this context it is closer to pale, stale, and male.

Weatherill follows in the footsteps of another former premier from South Australia, Mike Rann, sent to London in 2012 and served until the Rudd government fell the year after, receiving the consolation prize of switch to be Australia’s representative to Rome when the Coalition replaced him with Alexander Downer.

It’s true that the London posting has traditionally seen a former senior politician in the job. George Brandis also ranks among recent incumbents. But the office at Australia House is not the exclusive domain of the political class. As the Lowy Institute’s Diplomatic Database shows, qualified senior officials have also held the role in the not-too-distant past, names such as Michael L’Estrange, John Dauth and Philip Flood. After Weatherill takes up the role, the database will record that since 1974 (the 50 years of records assessed) six Labor politicians have held the job, five Liberals, and seven diplomats.

But the job of Australia’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom has never been held by a woman. Nor has that of Australia’s ambassador to the United States. In Australian bureaucratic parlance, a PSM is a recipient of the Public Service Medal, but in this context it is closer to pale, stale, and male.

Wong’s desire to roll back the political carpetbagging in Australia’s diplomatic network has succeeded on an aggregate measure. At one stage, when the Liberal-Nationals Coalition was in charge in the 2010s, the number of former politicians in diplomatic jobs was close to 50% higher than it had ever been, with around 10 serving in various posts. Singapore, Wellington, The Hague, Ottawa, Tokyo, New Delhi and UN headquarters each came to accommodate a one-time elected representative, along with others that had traditionally seen an ex-politician occupy the job.

With Weatherill replacing Smith, Wong will still have appointed five politicians to ambassadorial jobs: Kevin Rudd in Washington, Keith Pitt to the Holy See, Stephen Jones to the OECD, Michelle O’Byrne as Ambassador for Gender Equality. There have been some others with business backgrounds or from different parts of the public service. But she can also point to more than 100 drawn from the ranks of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

About the author

Daniel Flitton

Daniel Flitton is one of Australia’s most experienced foreign affairs journalists and is Managing Editor of the Lowy Institute’s international magazine, The Interpreter.

Topics

Australia Diplomacy