Bob Carr's tricky transition period

BEING a state premier is certainly a demanding and rewarding job but ultimately it carries a straightforward brief, primarily because it involves only one constituency.

Notwithstanding the competing priorities and political challenges, a premier knows that he or she simply must say and do what is in the best interests of their state. All the messaging has one audience.

Drop yourself into the shoes of the foreign minister and life becomes infinitely more complicated.

Every question posed to you must be answered with nuance; every answer is pitched to more than one audience. The wrong word on Tibet might offend China but please the domestic human rights lobby.

A hint of appeasement on Tibet might warm the tone with Beijing, draw anger from Australian activists and sympathisers, and send your Greens coalition partners into a tizz. And all the while you have to consider what is right, and what is in Australia's national interest.

This is the transition Bob Carr is making. It would be difficult for anyone but it always looked like being a riskier transition for him.

As I pointed out in blogposts and interviews before he was even sworn in, his media confidence and fondness for commentary were always going to make his transition more dangerous. What he needed to do - and still must do - is proceed with caution, spend his time getting fully briefed, and keep his public comments tightly to script.

Instead he launched into a media onslaught. On the day he arrived at Parliament House to be sworn in he was asked about the tragic massacre of 16 civilians by a US soldier before he segued directly into a rehearsed, party-political attack on Tony Abbott. It was insensitive.

Within a couple of days, Carr was on television being interviewed by former Labor senator Graham Richardson on Sky News. Asked about the possibility that Papua New Guinea would delay its elections, the new Foreign Minister raised the spectre of sanctions and threatened that Australia could be placed in a position "where we'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea".

This was megaphone diplomacy at its worst. It played to our own domestic preferences for PNG elections but failed to comprehend the subtleties of the relationship. As the former colonial master and primary aid donor to PNG, Australia needs to avoid a hectoring and patriarchal tone. And recognising those sensitivities, if diplomatic pressure needed to be increased on PNG, it should happen privately, and then any public moves might first be organised through the Pacific Islands Forum.

But rather than be cowed by his mishaps, Carr blamed the media interpretation of his remarks and he kept up his appearances. The words kept coming. His maiden speech centred largely on climate change - hardly our greatest foreign policy challenge - and the discussion about avoiding the "clash of civilisations" outlined in Samuel Huntington's book of two decades ago.

Carr then jumped straight into the ABC studios for another interview, on 7.30, and this time he made a error in the details about the death of a Brazilian student who had been tasered by police. He said he offered his condolences to the victim's parents - but they were deceased.

Carr will find that he is constantly asked to comment on consular cases in his new role - usually Australians in trouble or arrested overseas, and often because of their own stupidity. While he won't find this work intellectually stimulating, he will find that he needs to be across the specific details of each case, including the whereabouts, comments and issues raised by their families. If he gets these issues wrong, he will pay a high price domestically - frankly the public has massively over-inflated expectations in this area. So getting across the details is crucial.

Also in the 7.30 interview, Carr sensibly admitted he had made a mistake on PNG and said he would learn from it. That was sensible but makes you wonder why he didn't just do that in the first place.

Still, he went on to another interview this week, with Lateline. You have to wonder why. His time would be better spent in these early days reading and discussing briefing material from his department. Again he was unimpressive. He told us he had "counselled Israel against a military response to the Iranian nuclear project. Counselled? I am certain Israel will bristle - or smile - at the presumption in that word.

Worse, Carr was lured into a comparison between US race politics of the 1960s and our domestic politics. He said: "Conservative leaders pulling levers about race to get generally working class supporters to respond to their nasty little clarion calls. Yes, you've seen that - you saw that for a time with John Howard and you saw it - you see it from time to time with Tony Abbott."

Apart from being a terrible slur against the conservatives, this was a transparent slight against the Australian people - especially the "working class" - who Carr obviously believes are racist and gullible enough to be manipulated by nasty conservatives. Perhaps not a great reflection for a foreign minister to make upon his on country.

My view is that this analysis is fundamentally inaccurate. But even if you thought it was correct, can you appeal to mainstream voters by denigrating them in this way? Carr needs to quickly make the transition from state to international politics - and from commentator to practitioner.

It is one thing, for instance, to blog about the intractability of the war in Afghanistan, and quite another to be responsible for the brave Australians risking their lives therein a project their country has told them is worthy.

Carr's casual interest as a well-read enthusiast, and an eloquent and confident commentator, does not necessarily add to his qualifications - but it certainly increases the risk of mistakes. Aside from media conferences, he has conducted nine major interviews in the past 10 days. In his department, Carr is surrounded by experienced and wise diplomats and advisers. He should spend more time with them and less time in the media. More reading, more listening. Less talking.

Chris Kenny has served as chief of staff to a premier and a foreign minister.