ALP foolish to dump Trump ally Joe Hockey

If Labor is merely engaging in cheap politics with Joe Hockey in the Helloworld issue, then Australia’s national interests will be ­severely damaged.

Hockey has been, without doubt, one of the most important, influential and successful ­ambassadors Australia has sent to Washington.

Assuming the Helloworld issue is all smoke and no fire, then the smartest thing Bill Shorten could do if he wins the election would be to extend Hockey’s term until at least the 2020 presidential election.

Why? Because Hockey has been the ambassador that Australia has needed during one of the most turbulent and unpredictable presidencies in US history.

Hockey’s strength has been to realise long before many of his fellow ambassadors in Washington that dealing with Donald Trump and his White House was all about forging personal connections with Trump himself and the small group of powerbrokers who have the President’s ear.

Hockey has thrown out the conventional, cautious playbook of career diplomats and used his political experience and big personality to make waves in Washington, launching headlong into forging personal connections with those who count within that small circle.

He was able to gain early access to the White House because Trump’s economic advisers were looking for a cheap way to fund the President’s infrastructure promises and Hockey made sure to tell them about his asset recycling policies he championed when he was Treasurer.

Once in that door — which so few diplomats get to enter — Hockey has tenaciously expanded his tentacles across the administration.

He has made powerful friends both inside the White House and on Capitol Hill.

He was the key facilitator in fostering the ultimately warm relationship between Trump and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after their initial frosty phone call over the Nauru refugee deal.

Hockey has kept close counsel with the free-traders among Trump’s economic team, advocating strongly for Australia on that front, and he was especially close to Trump’s former economic adviser Gary Cohn.

Most important of all, it was Hockey who played the central role in ­arguing successfully that Australia be the only Western ally to be allowed an exemption from Trump’s steel and aluminium ­tariffs. This was a huge win for Australia.

Hockey also forged a close ­relationship with former White House chief-of-staff John Kelly and now with the current acting chief-of-staff Mick Mulvaney.

As he has moved ever closer to Trump’s orbit, Hockey now finds himself playing golf with the President, who has come to know him and like him. When they played golf recently, Trump questioned Hockey about Australia, the alliance and about those in power in Canberra. In Trump’s Washington, this is the way to do business and to get results.

Those who play the traditional game of working through the State Department rather than fostering those personal connections are doomed to impotence.

One wonders whether this ­reality is fully understood in Canberra. Hockey has been worth his weight in gold for Australia.

If he has done something wrong, then so be it.

But if this is a cheap political shot, then all Australians will be the poorer for it.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia