Former Labor prime minister, then foreign minister, Dr. Kevin Rudd will replace Arthur Sinodinos AO as Ambassador to the United States.
Mr Sinodinos a former Liberal politician and chief of staff to former prime minister John Howard was appointed in 2020.
Mr Rudd will commence the posting early next year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, at a press conference today, said Mr Rudd had extensive experience and connections in the US.
“Kevin Rudd is an outstanding appointment, he brings a great deal of credit to Australia by agreeing to this appointment,” Mr Albanese said.
“As someone who has links to the global community in Washington DC, he will be a major asset.”
Mr Rudd was recently chief executive of international relations institute the Asia Society and has spent most of the past decade in the US where he worked with American politicians and businesspeople.
After winning the 2007 election against John Howard, Mr Rudd was deposed as prime minister by members of his own cabinet and replaced by Julia Gillard.
He later mounted a campaign against Gillard and retook the office of prime minister heading into a federal election only to lose to Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition in 2013. The six years of Labor rule between 2007 and 2013 as a Rudd, Gillard, Rudd government was characterised as chaotic.
In recent years Mr Rudd has led a campaign for a royal commission into the Rupert Murdoch-owned international media organisation News Corp who he thought treated him unfairly in the 2013 election.
I am greatly honoured by the Australian Government’s decision to nominate me as our country’s next Ambassador to the United States of America commencing in March. pic.twitter.com/vIz1KckSv4
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) December 19, 2022
In a two page statement posted on his twitter account, Mr Rudd said he was honoured to accept the role.
“Australia currently faces its most challenging security and diplomatic environment for decades,” he said.
“Our national interest continues to be served, as it has for decades past, by the deepest and most effective strategic engagement of the United States in our region.”
Mr Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong said in a statement that the two countries were aligned by their goal to have an open, stable, and prosperous region that “respected” sovereignty.
“Along with our deepening collaboration on defence, including through AUKUS, we have an extensive and mutually beneficial economic relationship with the United States, and we are making cooperation on climate change a hallmark of our alliance.”
Mr Rudd warned last year that the AUKUS deal left Australia “strategically naked” for two decades, with no replacement submarine program in the interim.
Nick Greiner, another former Liberal politician who last year was appointed as consul-general in New York, will also be replaced by businesswoman Heather Ridout.
Ms Ridout is a former chief executive of the Australian Industry Group.
Senator Wong emphasised that the government had appointed “a great many” career diplomats but said there were occasions where political appointments to posts were preferred.
Mr Albanese said it was “entirely appropriate” for people with knowledge of political structures to be appointed to posts.
Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said no diplomatic posting was more important than the one that would be filled by Mr Rudd.
“Over the years Australia’s ambassador in Washington has been ably filled by many who, in representing Australia’s interests, are close to and carry the ear of the prime minister of the day,” he said in a statement.
He said representing Australia’s interests in the AUKUS agreement would be a “most challenging undertaking” that would require Mr Rudd’s “unqualified support and attention”.
“The Coalition looks to Mr Rudd and all of the new appointments to deliver on Australia’s national interests first and foremost.”
