King to Canberra
The Herald reports:
Former MP Dame Annette King is tipped to be appointed the next High Commissioner to Australia by the end of the year.
King left Parliament at the last election and was made a Dame in the New Year’s Honours.
It is understood King is now in line to be appointed as High Commissioner for Australia in the middle of the year and will take up the post when the current High Commissioner Chris Seed leaves after August.
This is no surprise. King has been rumoured to be in line for the Australia post for some years.
In the past, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has railed against “plum” postings for former MPs, saying it was doing experienced senior diplomats out of a post and if he was Foreign Minister again he would recall those he did not believe were suited to the job.
He is yet to recall any of those former politicians serving as diplomats, who include Tim Groser in Washington and Maurice Williamson as a consul general in Los Angeles.
While former politicians have often been sent to London and Washington DC, career diplomats are more common for Australia which is our closest international partner.
What Winston says and does is of course rarely the same.
Anyway I have no problems with Annette King being appointed – I think she would do a good job.
Peters and King have a respectful relationship and the posting was understood to be an unwritten understanding of the coalition relationship.
What a transparent Government we have. It seems we have:
- The public coalition agreement
- The 43 pages of additional policies which are secret until they are agreed and announced
- The unwritten understandings