Rita Panahi: Albanese govt’s First Nations envoy a woke role that exists nowhere else

A country’s foreign policy should never be compromised with identity politics or racial grievances so Australians are entitled to ask why we now have an Ambassador for First Nations Peoples.

Australians are entitled to ask why the Albanese government has appointed what it calls an Ambassador for First Nations Peoples to “embed First Nations perspectives into Australia’s foreign policy”.

This is a role that exists nowhere else in the world and with good reason; a country’s foreign policy should never be compromised with identity politics or racial grievances.

Are Indigenous Australians not part of the country? Why do they need separate representation for foreign policy? And, why do other minority groups not have similar representation?

Foreign policy experts and Indigenous leaders, including Warren Mundine, have questioned why such a role exists and what it means for Australia on the international stage.

Michael Shoebridge, director of Strategic Analysis Australia, has warned that foreign policy needs to be clear and not distorted by various interest groups.

Australia’s First Nations People Ambassador, Justin Mohamed, in Geneva. Picture: Supplied

“You never want your foreign policy hijacked by a narrow sector of your community,” he said.

“I don’t know any country on the planet that has centred its foreign policy and its First Nations policy, and that’s because it would be a silly thing to do.”

Justin Mohamed was appointed First Nations People Ambassador in March last year and on top of his healthy salary of $326,000 he has approval for a six-figure travel budget. In the past 12 months he has gallivanted around the world from New York to Dubai to Paris, in business class, of course.

Liberal senator Alex Antic has slammed the “division” created by the role with the Coalition pledging to abolish the position if they win the next election.

“This is the sort of division rejected by the Australian public 12 months ago,” Antic told me on Sky News Australia. “These are extraordinarily important matters of foreign affairs that simply should not be dealt with in this matter.

Mr Antic has also called for the political term “first nations” to be rejected. “We have to get over the term first nations, it’s a myth, there were no nations,” he said.

And we have to have governments at all levels accept the decision of the Australian people who overwhelmingly rejected racial division being enshrined in our institutions.

Originally published as Rita Panahi: Albanese govt’s First Nations envoy a woke role that exists nowhere else