Star-studded farewell party for Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey
He has spent decades in Australia as a politician but after fulfilling his role as Ambassador for the United States, Joe Hockey ended his political career with a farewell party in Washington with 450 of his closest friends, including golfer Greg Norman.
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Joe Hockey ended a quarter century in politics and diplomacy with a star-studded farewell shindig in Washington overnight for 450 of his closest friends.
The outgoing Ambassador’s some time golfing partner President Donald Trump was a no-show to the farewell but he sent along his acting chief of staff and Treasury Secretary.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott and golfer Greg Norman gave speeches lauding Hockey, and businessman Anthony Pratt helped pay for the party at Washington’s trendy Union Market.
Mr Norman presented former Australian PM Tony Abbott with a cheque for $648,159 for a bushfire relief fund — money raised by the American Australian Association.
Hockey said Abbott had been spending three days a week since September fighting fires as a volunteer.
“What a great Australian story,” he said, paying tribute to his former boss.
In lieu of appearing in person at the party, Trump invited Hockey and his family — wife Melissa Babbage and three children, aged 14, 13 and 10 — into the White House for selfies and a 15-minute chat.
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It was the day Trump’s impeachment moved to the US Senate but Hockey says he was more interested in Australia’s bushfires.
“He’s just getting on with business,” Hockey said.
“He asked me all about the bushfires. He wanted to know was it climate change and are any animals extinct as a result of the fires … We talked about the parallel with California about the build-up [of fuel] on the ground and the intensity of the fires. He offered us everything that we needed or wanted.”
Americans “really like us”, Hockey said.
“They have a heartfelt love for Australia. They see us as kindred spirits in many ways with shared values. They’re very kind and generous.”
Hockey gives Trump a good chance of winning the November election but says he thinks “there’s going to be a lot of twists and turns”.
“He thinks media mogul Michael Bloomberg will be the Democratic nominee and the one billion dollars he has pledged to spend on advertising will make him a formidable candidate,” Hockey said.
“No matter who the president of the United States is they deserve respect and you have to work with them.”
After losing his job as treasurer when Tony Abbott was rolled by Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, Hockey quit politics and was appointed Ambassador in the middle of the 2016 American presidential campaign.
He says he decided early on that Trump would beat Hillary Clinton, to the chagrin, he says of PM Turnbull.
Hockey worked out early how to communicate with Trump.
“He reminds me a lot of Kerry Packer in many ways. He asks a lot of questions, likes to surround himself with smart people, he’s not a technocrat, he’s very verbal and visual … You treat him respectfully but you’re not intimidated, you’re straightforward,” Hockey said.
The relationship with Trump got off to a rocky start when Turnbull insisted in his first phone call with the new president that he honour the Obama era deal to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus in the US.
The call was leaked, to the embarrassment of a president and the White House initially blamed Australia.
It took all Hockey’s diplomacy skills to placate the White House.
“We rebuilt the relationship after the rocky start,” Hockey said, ticking off his achievements.
“We convinced the Trump administration to keep the refugee deal, we managed to get ourselves exempted from the steel and aluminium tariffs – the only country in the world. We preserved the status quo on [Australia’s exclusive] E3 visas … and we had the extraordinary state dinner last year [for Prime Minister Scott Morrison].”
Alexander Downer’s role in triggering the FBI’s flawed Russian collusion investigation of Donald Trump was another brushfire which Hockey extinguished using his personal relationship with Trump and his inner sanctum, forged on the golf courses of Washington and Mar a Lago.
Turnbull, who was invited to the party but could not attend, praises Hockey for the way he handled the crises and says he was uniquely suited to the role: “He’s a salesman, a marketeer. You’ve got to be a hustler in Washington. Also having been in politics as an elected representative was an advantage because he could talk politics with the people in Washington with an insight that traditional diplomats don’t have.”
Hockey plans now to go into business and make some money, staying in Washington, DC, where he has rented a house for his family around the corner from the ambassador’s residence.
He won’t say precisely what his new role is, other than that it will be in “infrastructure with a finance angle”, most likely advising America on the public-private partnerships he helped institute as Treasurer.
“It’s been a massive privilege to represent my country for 24 years.”
Greg Norman praised Hockey as the most effective and influential Australian ambassador to the United States he had met since he moved to the US in the 1970s.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to know a lot of prime ministers out of Australia, as well as a lot of presidents out of the United States,” Mr Norman said.
“Never have I seen a person do so much behind the scenes to elevate the relationship between Australia and the United States.
“I’m talking about national security. I’m talking about economics, I’m talking about relationships, people skills, you know, diverting and correcting things behind the scenes.
“He will be the most missed Australian ambassador in the 40 years that I have been involved here.
“He has been one of the most special, unique people who has got so much done behind the scenes, with such humility.
“I speak to Joe quite often, once or twice a day at times.”
He said the pair had become good friends early in Mr Hockey’s ambassadorship, when Mr Norman connected then PM Malcolm Turnbull with US President Donald Trump, shortly after he was inaugurated.
The two leaders spoke on January 28, 2017, their call ending abruptly as Mr Trump complained about a refugee swap deal his predecessor, Barack Obama, had made with Mr Turnbull.
“When Donald Trump became president, our relationship really stepped up to another level because he was seeking the incoming president’s number for prime minister Turnbull to give him a call,” Mr Norman said.
“Things like that, it’s just the way he does it, so friendly and easy and uncomplicated, the quintessential Aussie. He’s always smiling, and he has always wanted to do the right thing for everybody to create the right result.”
Mr Norman described the relationship between the US and Australia as “invaluable”.
“I’ve always said that we have that big brother, little brother relationship,” Mr Norman said.
“I think the little brother, being Australia, has really been the bedrock for a lot of things America has needed in the South Pacific. And we’ve stepped up to the plate and many situations on a handshake.”
The golfer also divulged he and Hockey are planning to go to The Himalayas and spend ten days travelling together in a tuktuk.
Joe Hockey was the “last great reforming treasurer of Australia”, said Tony Abbott, taking a break from fighting bushfires to pay tribute to outgoing US ambassador in Washington DC.
“At least two of the last four prime ministers have had narcissistic personality disorder … and Joe has to work with all of them,” he said.
PM Scott Morrison sent a video tribute: “No one encapsulates the spirit of mateship more than you.”
In a speech, Hockey paid tribute to his former boss, Abbott: “He’s a man of great integrity, he’s a very decent human being … You’re absolutely right, Tony … [2014] was a great reforming budget … that’s why we’re in surplus.”
Hockey’s wife Melissa Babbage and their children joined him on stage.
“I’m the luckiest guy on earth,” he said.
Babbage said she was “looking towards our future which is really exciting”.
Anthony Pratt labelled Hockey the “Trump Whisperer”: “Before anyone else you had the foresight to see the Trump rise – so you formed relationships with people around then candidate Trump – and with Trump himself – something that’s paid real dividends for our country.”
Food consisted of “grilled mini Aussie snag” hotdogs.