The professional statesmen and plenipotentiaries of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have long regarded the political appointees in their midst with barely disguised contempt. And the sentiment is often mutual. Forget the “church and state” precept, this one’s seminary and whorehouse. We’d cross the street before passing either.

There are now seven permanent Australian government missions abroad besmirched by the presence of former politicians at their helms: Chicago (former Liberal senator for Tasmania David Bushby), Houston (John Howard’s former agriculture minister Peter McGauran), London (former attorney-general George Brandis), Tokyo (former Western Australian premier Richard Court), the United Nations (former communications minister Mitch Fifield), Washington (Tony Abbott’s former treasurer Joe Hockey, being replaced by Malcolm Turnbull’s former cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos in January) and Wellington (former NSW Liberal legislative councillor Patricia Forsythe). An eighth, the consulate-general in New York, is soon-to-be vacated by Turnbull’s pal, spivtastic Goldman Sachs alumnus Alastair Walton.