Former Nationals cabinet minister to be Australia’s next ambassador to the Vatican

Retiring Nationals MP and former cabinet minister Keith Pitt is expected to be appointed as Australia’s next ambassador to the Holy See.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the decision as soon as this weekend.

Former resources minister Keith Pitt announced he would resign from politics late last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Pitt is Catholic, attended Catholic school and was one of only four MPs to vote against same-sex marriage in parliament in 2017.

He left parliament in January and his appointment to the Holy See has been in the works for months. Pitt was contacted for comment about the appointment.

The former resources minister, a fierce rival of Nationals leader David Littleproud, had considered challenging for the party leadership this term before announcing his resignation late last year.

Senior National Party sources believe Pitt’s Queensland seat of Hinkler, which he held on a 10 per margin at the 2022 election, may be vulnerable without Pitt’s profile. Pitt will no longer be able to campaign in Hinkler alongside the party’s new candidate when he takes up his Vatican post.

The LNP said late last month the nomination process for the Hinkler candidate had closed and that selection vetting was ongoing.

As resources minister, Pitt was a champion of coal power and said when announcing his retirement from politics in December that Littleproud should “stand up” to Dutton and the Liberals within the Coalition.

“And to do that, you’ve got to separate from your brothers and sisters in the Liberal Party because they have, on occasions, different views to us,” Pitt told The Australian. “In my view, political parties without purpose soon disappear.”

Pitt said he and Littleproud had “very different views on what’s the priority and direction for the Nationals”.

Keith Pitt left parliament last month.Credit: James Brickwood

“I just think there’s been a shift in terms of policy positions that are sold as discipline, but it’s more about obedience,” he said.

Pitt also criticised emissions targets, saying “while there is literally zero impact on the temperature of the planet, it has huge impacts on the wallets of regional people”.

Pitt’s exit from parliament added to the growing list of opposition MPs to have left before the 2025 election, which includes former ministers Simon Birmingham, Paul Fletcher, Marise Payne, Alan Tudge, Linda Reynolds and Karen Andrews, as well as Warren Entsch, Mark Coulton, Rowan Ramsey and David Gillespie.

Tim Fischer, a former deputy prime minister in the Howard government, was appointed as Australia’s first stand-alone ambassador to the Holy See in 2009 by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd. The role had previously been performed by Australia’s ambassador to Ireland.

At the time, Rudd’s decision to send Fischer to the Vatican was widely praised for being a bipartisan gesture, as was the decision later that year by Rudd to appoint former Liberal opposition leader Brendan Nelson as ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, NATO and the European Union.

A current Labor MP told this masthead that, as with Rudd’s appointments of former Coalition MPs, the appointment of Pitt could open the door to a retired Labor MP being appointed to another diplomatic post.

Albanese has already appointed two former senior Labor MPs, Rudd and former defence minister Stephen Smith, as Australia’s ambassador to Washington and high commissioner to London respectively.

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