Diplomat steered Australia’s relationship with Asia at difficult time

RICHARD WOOLCOTT: 1927 - 2023

The great change in Australia’s orientation in foreign affairs came with the era of Harold Holt’s prime ministership, shifting away from the Eurocentric policy of the Menzies era and embracing Asia. But behind that was the enlightened influence of one of Australia’s great public servants, Richard Woolcott, who in 1967 drafted a speech for Holt that said Australia was geographically part of Asia and that it was “a basic tenet of our national policy to live in friendship and understanding with our Asian neighbours”.

Richard Woolcott, who was Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia in 1975, at the Glebe Coronors Court in 2007 where he gave evidence at the Balibo 5 inquest.

It was timely and appropriate, despite the stress of the Vietnam conflict. But that year Woolcott, as he had done through his diplomatic career, stepped beyond the supposed political restraints and told The Age that his personal view was that Australia should recognise Communist China. That infuriated then-foreign minister Paul Hasluck, whose government did not recognise Communist China.

Woolcott was sentenced to a form of diplomatic exile by being sent to Africa. But, of course, time passed and recognition of China is exactly what happened. Woolcott ran into rough water again when he was caught up in the controversy surrounding Indonesia’s takeover of East Timor. His wise and steady advice to the Australian government at the time – to preserve its relationship with Indonesia – ultimately proved, it can be argued, to be the correct one.

Richard Arthur Woolcott was born in Sydney on June 11, 1927, the son of a surgeon captain in the Royal Australian Navy, Dr Arthur Woolcott and Anne (nee Thwaites).

He went to Geelong Grammar, where he was taught by historian Manning Clark, and Melbourne University and gained an arts degree before being awarded a traineeship in 1950 with the then department of external affairs.

Richard Woolcott with his bride Birgit Christensen, of Copenhagen, Denmark, leaving the Savoy Chapel after their wedding.

He moved quickly, attending a course in Slavonic Studies at London University. In 1952, he was appointed third secretary at the Australian embassy in Moscow, taking time off in July that year to marry Danish-born Birgit Christensen in London, then returning to Moscow.

A son, Peter, was born in 1953. The Moscow position was demanding, given the realities of the Cold War and, in April 1954, when the Petrov Affair exploded, Woolcott and fellow diplomat Bill Morrison, along with all diplomatic staff, were expelled from the Soviet Union.

Woolcott was sent to the Australian high commission in South Africa as second secretary. Three years later, now father of a second son, Robert, he became the second secretary at the South-East Asian Section of the Department of External Affairs. It was then that his vision of a change in Australia’s outlook and position in the world started to emerge.

In a speech to the Public Relations Institute of Australia, he said: “Australia is on the threshold of a bright future if it makes the right choices. We can stand still and allow ourselves to become regarded as a bucolic, inwards-looking materialist, racist, self-satisfied, apathetic, pleasure-seeking member of the world community, slumbering at the southern end of the globe, a sort of Anglo-American stepchild, which never really grew up; a second-hand transplanted society which lost its momentum before it decided in which direction it wanted to move. Or we can work to become an accepted, distinctive, tolerant and well-regarded nation in the Asia Pacific region.”

Diplomatic cadets Phil Peters, Bill Morrison, Dick Woolcott and Tony Powell participate in a bushfire drill in the grounds of Gungahlin Homestead in Canberra in 1950.Credit: Geoff Mannall

In 1959, now with a daughter, Anna, Woolcott returned to Moscow to take up a diplomatic posting in a more normal environment. Two years later, he was appointed first secretary in the Australian embassy in Kuala Lumpur. In 1963, he was appointed to the high commission in Singapore and the following year he returned to Canberra as public information officer.

Woolcott’s stature having grown, he was approached in 1966 to stand for federal parliament for the Liberal Party. But he turned the offer down, as he would another offer from the Liberal Party and one from the Labor Party.

“I decided against that because I felt I could do a more productive job for Australia’s foreign policy by advising in my view, completely objectively and impartially the government of the day,” he said later.

He certainly lived up to that. Though the speech he drafted for Holt was accepted and represented a turning point in Australia’s world outlook, Woolcott’s thoughts on the recognition of China saw him posted to a diplomatic position in Ghana.

Richard Woolcot as Australia’s high commissioner to Ghana. He was known as Nana Adaban 1 Tufuhene of Kromantsi.

But when the Whitlam government was elected in December 1972, and concerns were raised that Woolcott was tainted, having served Coalition governments for so long, he was able to brush that aside easily, contributing lines about Labor’s new independent foreign policy which Whitlam delivered at his first prime ministerial news conference.

Woolcott came within an ace at that moment of being appointed head of the Department of External Affairs. Instead, in 1975, he became Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, at the time of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Despite universal condemnation of the Indonesian action, and the controversy over the fate of five journalists killed by Indonesian forces in Balibo, he stressed in his advice to government that too much was at stake diplomatically and politically to condemn Indonesia for its operation in East Timor.

Ultimately, despite the brutality exhibited by the Indonesians and the shift in policy by the Australian government in 1999 supporting East Timor’s independence, Woolcott’s advice can be said to have been sound.

Richard Woolcott, as ambassador to Indonesia, delivers a eulogy at the funeral of the five journalists, known as the Balibo 5, in Jakarta in 1995.

Reacting to criticism that he had been “too soft” on Indonesia, Woolcott said he felt he was being made a scapegoat, and added: “The only country I’m ‘pro’ is Australia. If you look at all the documents that have now been published, you’ll find that the Australian embassy in Jakarta was continuously urging the Indonesians not to use force.”

When Indonesian intervention became inevitable, his recommendation had been that the Australian government had “no other course but accept that Indonesia was going to do this”. He said years later, “Essentially because I’ve taken the realistic position that there is an independent East Timor and it’s absolutely essential Australia, Indonesia and East Timor strive to make that work effectively.”

In 1978, Woolcott was appointed Australian ambassador to the Philippines. In 1982, became the Australian ambassador to the United Nations where he became involved in many issues, including sanctions against the South African apartheid regime and the international treaty on Antarctica.

Again he was touted as the new head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Instead, in 1985 he took his turn as chairman of the United Nations Security Council, of which Australia was a member.

Australian ambassador Richard Woolcott (left) presents his credentials to then-UN secretary-general Javier Perez de Cuellar at the United Nations in 1982.Credit: AP

In 1988, having been made an Officer of the Order of Australia, he finally was appointed head of department and in that role was charged with the responsibility of making the merger between the Department of Foreign Affair and Department of Trade successful. He also busied himself with the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum.

Woolcott went as prime minister Bob Hawke’s special envoy to push for the formation of a new powerful Asia Pacific trading lobby and later was appointed then-prime minister Paul Keating’s special envoy to the Australian Pacific Economic Conference.

He did become involved in domestic politics to the extent of telling then-opposition leader Andrew Peacock that he did not think John Howard would make a good foreign minister because Howard, who later became prime minister, was “uncomfortable in Asia, which is after all the part of the world in which we live”.

Speculation abounded that Woolcott would become governor of Victoria, but that was not to be. Instead, he was appointed to a governing position with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 1992, after finishing his term as departmental head and formally retiring, he was appointed chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute.

Then-prime minister Kevin Rudd (right) and Malcolm Fraser (centre) with veteran diplomat and Richard Woolcott at Parliament House in Canberra in 2008. Credit: Fairfax

In 1996, by then a Companion of the Order of Australia, Woolcott was appointed as Howard’s special envoy to Malaysia. He became a founding director of the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre.

In his memoir in 2003, The Hot Seat: Reflections on Diplomacy from Stalin’s Death to the Bali Bombings, Woolcott spoke out against the Australian government’s subservience to the US alliance, especially over Iraq.

That year, he gave the Inaugural National Republican Lecture at the National Press Club. Having served under seven prime ministers and 12 foreign ministers, and having built up an extraordinary international network, he had plenty to say. His next book, in 2007, was Undiplomatic Activities.

After losing his wife to cancer in 2008, he continued working. Then prime minister Kevin Rudd announced that Woolcott had been appointed an envoy to conduct discussions to form a new Asian regional forum.

Foreign affairs veteran and author Richard Woolcott at home in Canberra in 2003.Credit: Fairfax

Woolcott was selected as one of the inaugural fellows of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, and he was awarded the Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop Asia Medal, in recognition of his contribution to Australia’s relationships with Asia.

On Thursday last week, Richard Woolcott died in Canberra. He is survived by his son, Peter, who followed him into the diplomatic service, then became chief of staff to prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and is now Public Service Commissioner.

He is also survived by Robert, who is a retired advertising executive in New York.

His daughter, Anna, predeceased him. He is also survived by 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.