When Andrew Shearer was appointed head of the Office of National Intelligence in 2020, the Labor Party said the pivotal role had been given to a “partisan operative” totally inappropriate for such a sensitive position.

Yet on Monday, the said operative was photographed across from Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong on the plane Scott Morrison dubbed “Shark One” as it flew to Tokyo for the latest meeting of the Quad. Suppose some insiders are too ... well, too insidery to easily do without. And Shearer’s championing of the Quad security forum and close connections to the Biden administration are almost as well-known as his time working for Tony Abbott and John Howard.