Rudd’s strategic expertise and insight for key role

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at his office in Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

At the most strategically challenging time for Australia since World War II, the nation’s most important ally, the US, deserves no less than the services of a former prime minister as our ambassador to Washington. That said, the relationship is more important than any of the players, including political leaders on both sides of the Pacific. Anthony Albanese’s appointment of Kevin Rudd, whom Mr Albanese served as deputy prime minister in 2013, follows a line of senior political appointments to the prestigious role – Andrew Peacock, Kim Beazley, Joe Hockey and Arthur Sinodinos. All served with distinction. Dr Rudd will be the first former prime minister to take on the challenge.

As the Prime Minister said, Dr Rudd will bring “unmatched experience to the role” as a “former prime minister, as a former foreign minister, as someone who’s been head of the Asia Society and as someone who has links with the global community based in Washington”. Given Mr Albanese’s ringing endorsement on Tuesday, he had no reason in April to dismiss the idea of Dr Rudd’s appointment as “complete nonsense” after The Australian’s Brad Norington broke the story. At the time Dr Rudd took to Twitter, branding the story “total garbage”.

The appointment comes at a critical time. The US-Australian alliance is increasingly important as the US boosts its military presence in northern Australia, the AUKUS pact advances and Japan expands its defences in tandem with Australia and the US. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that earlier this year Dr Rudd slammed the Coalition’s move to scrap its deal with the French for conventionally powered submarines, questioned whether nuclear-powered submarines were “strategically necessary” and claimed Scott Morrison signed the deal to make himself look “big, important and hairy-chested”. AUKUS is part of a vital response to China’s unprecedented military build-up in the region and its apparent aim to drive the US from the Western Pacific. That black mark aside, Dr Rudd’s expertise in US-China relations should be an asset.

Dr Rudd, 65, began his working life as a career diplomat, serving in Stockholm and Beijing after graduating from the Australian National University with honours in Chinese studies and fluent in Mandarin. While widely respected internationally for his insightful and objective analyses of China, Dr Rudd maintained his credibility in the field by avoiding the tendency of Paul Keating, Bob Carr and others who have positioned themselves as friends of China in various controversies through the years.

For all Dr Rudd’s credentials, his appointment will provoke concerns, not least in private among some who worked with him and under him as prime minister. In undertaking his role as ambassador, he should studiously avoid the kinds of behaviour that drove cabinet ministers and officials to despair. “The stories that were around of the chaos, of the temperament, of the inability to have decisions made – they are not stories,” Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said of Dr Rudd in 2013 after serving as the latter’s immigration and environment minister. In 2013 Dr Rudd’s former health minister, Nicola Roxon, said she was “frustrated beyond belief by his disorganisation and lack of strategy” but “was never personally a victim of his vicious tongue or temper”. She also noted “how terribly he treated some brilliant staff and public servants … Good people were burnt through like wildfire.” The Australian supported Dr Rudd at the 2007 election. But in recent years he has waged a personal and vitriolic campaign against this newspaper and News Corp, its publisher, calling for a royal commission into the company. It is illustrative of a style of indulgent and vengeful behaviour inconsistent with the high office of ambassador to the US. The new role will demand discipline and single-minded dedication to furthering a relationship that matters far more than any individual. We wish him well.