Job for Don Farrell’s mate made Kevin Rudd see red
Kevin Rudd did not want Trade Minister Don Farrell to appoint Chris Ketter, a little-known former Queensland Labor senator with no business experience, to a top government trade job in the US.
Kevin Rudd did not want Trade Minister Don Farrell to appoint a little-known former Labor senator from Queensland with no business experience to a top government trade job in the US.
The former Labor prime minister, now the Albanese government’s ambassador to Washington, is understood to have been furious earlier this year when he learned Senator Farrell intended to pick personal friend and former union colleague Chris Ketter as the next senior trade commissioner and consul-general in San Francisco.
Accounts have surfaced of how Dr Rudd and other senior officials at Australia’s US embassy in Washington were “unhappy” ahead of Mr Ketter’s appointment in July this year.
It follows The Australian first reporting last month that Senator Farrell dumped a high-ranking female Austrade executive as the “preferred candidate” for San Francisco – and instead appointed Mr Ketter.
Dr Rudd’s opposition to Mr Ketter landing the San Francisco job is significant because, aside from his status as a former PM, he is the overall head of the Australian government’s diplomatic mission in the US as ambassador.
Australian consulate chiefs in San Francisco and five other US cities report to Dr Rudd. From his time as prime minister, he is known for setting high expectations and requiring highly qualified staff in his orbit.
Mr Ketter was a union official for 32 years with the Queensland branch of the shopworkers’ union before serving one term as a Labor Senate backbencher in opposition, and then three years as a Labor staffer. He did not apply for the San Francisco trade job when it was advertised last year.
The preferred candidate from that recruitment process was Kirstyn Thomson, head of Austrade’s Americas investment desk, who has more than two decades’ experience in the area.
Ms Thomson was picked from a list of about 50 applicants and expected to move to San Francisco before Senator Farrell dumped her for Mr Ketter.
She is currently training Mr Ketter in Austrade’s Brisbane office ahead of his scheduled start in San Francisco next month.
Dr Rudd is understood to have been stunned that Senator Farrell would pick someone for the San Francisco trade post with no expertise or experience in attracting US investment to Australia, as the job requires.
He and other senior embassy officials learned some months ahead of the public announcement in July this year that the Trade Minister had chosen his old friend as a personal pick.
A month before the appointment was announced, Dr Rudd and others at the embassy were venting their disapproval with colleagues. One senior source said: “We were very surprised, thinking this seemed crazy, because this guy was a union official who didn’t have business or commercial experience or any background in trade and investment. And that was before it was public knowledge that Kirstyn Thomson was the preferred candidate.”
The Austrade advertisement for the San Francisco job last year said its people were all “experts” in trade and investment. Mr Ketter’s predecessor in San Francisco, Nicholas Nichles, was Austrade’s chief operating officer before he took up the post.
The Australian sought comment from Dr Rudd in Washington on his unhappiness with Mr Ketter’s appointment, whether he or other high-ranking embassy officials made representations to Canberra to argue against it, and whether he would have preferred Ms Thomson got the job. Dr Rudd opted not to comment.
Political appointments for overseas posts are not uncommon, including Anthony Albanese’s personal choice of Dr Rudd for Washington, first reported by The Australian last year.
But appointees usually have had a senior status in government, as party leaders or ministers, or have some relevant background.
In the case of Dr Rudd’s political appointment, no one in government or opposition disputed his qualifications to head Australia’s most significant diplomatic mission. As a former PM, Dr Rudd was on first-name terms with world leaders and possessed an intimate knowledge of US-Australia bilateral relations and the ANZUS alliance. He also served as foreign minister in the Gillard government, and had an early career as a diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before entering parliament.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in September last year – when she announced former Labor defence minister and Defence Strategic Review co-author Stephen Smith as Australia’s next high commissioner to London – that Labor intended “rebalancing” political appointments under Scott Morrison in favour of “qualified senior officials”.
The exception, Senator Wong said, would be “certain circumstances” where there was a “clear advantage” in choosing people with distinguished careers outside the public service in business or politics. After being trained by Ms Thomson, Mr Ketter will be expected to lead a 15-person team focused on attracting investment to Australia, including the technical detail of business contracts in California’s Silicon Valley.
His other role as consul-general, while important, is a secondary one to represent the government in San Francisco and provide consular services.
Mr Ketter worked closely with Senator Farrell for many years when both were union officials of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association. While Mr Ketter was the SDA’s Queensland branch secretary, Senator Farrell was the union’s South Australian branch secretary and its national president.
In his first speech to parliament in 2014 when he took up his Senate seat, Mr Ketter thanked Senator Farrell – watching from the public gallery during a brief period when he was out of the Senate – for his “friendship and support”.
Mr Ketter lost his seat after one term as a Senate backbencher because Labor did not win a second Senate seat – his spot on the party ticket – at the 2019 election. Unemployed, Mr Ketter was hired as a staffer by then deputy opposition leader Richard Marles, a position he held until scoring the San Francisco post in July this year.
Dr Rudd has a troubled past with Senator Farrell, dating back to when Dr Rudd was prime minister. Senator Farrell was one of a disgruntled group of Labor MPs who spearheaded the push to oust Dr Rudd and replace him with Julia Gillard in 2010, claiming to be displeased with the then PM’s alleged dysfunctional management style, non-inclusiveness and treatment of them as colleagues.
In his autobiography Kevin Rudd: The PM Years, Dr Rudd attacked Senator Farrell as one the “powerbrokers of the right” or “faceless men” out to get him.
As recently as 2020, on the decade anniversary of Dr Rudd’s removal as prime minister, Senator Farrell was quoted in The Australian Financial Review saying he had “no regrets”.
“We were headed for defeat after one term under Kevin Rudd,” Senator Farrell said then. “The switch to Julia Gillard gave us another term in office, during which we did some terrific things.”
As a fellow Queenslander, Dr Rudd also has known Mr Ketter from early days in the ALP.
When Dr Rudd was first elected to federal parliament in 1998, he and Mr Ketter were in rival factions of the ALP’s Queensland branch. Dr Rudd belonged to the smaller Right faction called “the Old Guard” which included then premier Peter Beattie.
Mr Ketter belonged to the Right’s larger “AWU faction” headed by then union boss Bill Ludwig. The Ludwig-AWU group included Wayne Swan and his then staffer, now federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
When Dr Rudd was deposed in 2010, Ludwig and his AWU faction were strong backers of the anti-Rudd push by Senator Farrell and other MPs. Mr Ketter stayed loyal to the Ludwig-AWU faction and to Senator Farrell. When the late Bill Ludwig headed Queensland Labor’s AWU faction, he was widely known “the godfather”.
As a powerbroker in the ALP’s Right, Senator Farrell appears to have adopted the “godfather” title. He welcomes the nickname, to the extent of calling one of his South Australian vineyard wines The Godfather Too. When Senator Farrell announced Mr Ketter’s appointment in July, he made no mention of the latter’s three decades as an SDA union official or that they were longtime friends.
Nor did Senator Farrell mention Austrade’s Ms Thomson had been dumped as the preferred candidate for Mr Ketter, which Coalition and Greens MPs are now comparing with the circumstances of former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment last year to a senior trade commissioner’s post in New York – a posting that Mr Barilaro ultimately did not accept.
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