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DFAT bemused at Downer choice
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Laughter mingled with disbelief was the sound emanating from the hallowed halls of RG Casey House – headquarters of the crack and ever so exclusive Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – this morning when The Australian landed on myriad desks. Janet Albrechtsen’s cloying essay on Alexander Downer had our Mole, among others, scratching their collective heads, wondering if the piece was really about the former minister or somebody else and our Janet had got the names mixed. Said Mole: “it’s hard to know where to begin mate” – he now feels at ease calling another bloke mate since the advent of Kevin 07 –“poor old Alex; he just didn’t get it while he was here. His manner may have worked in Whitehall a few centuries ago but it sure had no place in contemporary Australia.” As a senior officer, Mole kept an eye on Alexander and he claims as the years dragged on he couldn’t believe he was so stupid. “I guess the job got to him and he started to believe his own PR and Washington’s never ending cables telling him what a good guy he was didn’t help,” said Crikey’s insider. Mole claims the UN may have got names mixed up when they courted Downer for the Cyprus gig. This bloke, he said, was all for going into Iraq knowing it wouldn’t work; he’d nuke Tehran if he had his way and he’s comfortable with Israel’s attitude to the Middle East. Cyprus has been a festering sore for decades and Downer is not the answer. We wonder why Rudd was so quick to tell the UN that Alex is the man for the job. Mole said the most offensive and unbelievable Albrechstens were: the headline Warrior Statesman (I leapt to JA’s defence here, blame the subs for that one I told him), her description of him as a towering figure of the parliament of the past two decades (where, asked Mole, was she when he was Opposition leader?). But, said our informant, Downer’s extreme right wing views were accentuated when, unbelievably, he slapped Washington’s bottom for removing Pyongyang from the list of states sponsoring terrorism. He just doesn’t get it. We believe Bush is rewriting his own history and wants to look sane and moderate before Obama takes over. Alexander won’t be getting any US brownie points for that one. The gospel according to Mole is interesting. Budget cuts not withstanding, diplomats in DFAT are happy with Rudd and see him restoring the dignity which was trashed by John Howard and Downer in their subservience to Washington. |
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13 Comments
JamesK, you’ve obviously never seen the clip of Downer singing karaoke! Your point that Rudd’s support for Downer can not be ignored by the anti-Downerites is well made, though.
Mr or Ms Mole, DFAT, misses the point on Downer. Deliberately, one surmises. ‘Representing Australia’ is DFAT’s job. Carrying forward national policy is part of that (Mr or Ms Mole apparently would prefer to carry forward their own vision of national policy, a consistent problem with fractious or irritated Moles). Putting the politics into international representation is the Minister’s job. You might argue the policies Downer was promoting were wrong (I don’t), but you cannot argue with his energy or effect in promoting the then Australian Government’s arguments globally. Those arguments have now changed; but for practical purposes only in detail, as the new Minister would doubtless tell the Mole(s).
Richard,
Let’s face it, he was a prat, born out of political royalty. The silver spoon needs to removed from end and inserted at the other. He was always talking down because he had never dirtied his feet on the ground of reality.
AWB…Iraq? He was nothing but a Bush ‘fawner’.
Australian foreign policy was never lower.
Sounds like Barry’s DFAT mole is a bigger ass than anyone, reasonably astute, might have believed of Downer. Downer was his own worst enemy at times domestically and pompous, he may have been, but unintelligent he very clearly was not. Whatever the tossers at DFAT thouht of their ‘dignity’ is as naught to the embarrassment of the australian people when their leaders shoot their mouths off overseas and make silly blowtorch suggestions or asian union ideas on the run and without consultation. Rudd comes to mind but not Keating, Hawke, Evans and Hayden and not Downer and happily not Smith.
He has been given unequivocal support from Rudd and Smith and that relects well on them as well as Downer.
It seems that most reasonable people consider Downer to be a pompous ass. I can’t disagree but what really troubles me is the support he is getting for the Cyprus job from Rudd and Smith. I hope this support does not tell us anything significant about their judgment in other matters. It will be interesting to see whether the UN secretary general shares the admiration for Downer that our ALP leadership seems to have. He might remember the contempt Downer and mates have shown for the UN and other little matters like an illegal war and the Pacific Solution..
Why can’t his detractors give Alexander Downer some credit for a job well done? To me he sounds to be the perfect candidate for the DFAT Cypriot position. I’ve heard his French and it’s so ‘La plume de ma tante’ and all that jazz. And in just six months of study! The language of Cyprus is both Greek and Turkish. Which will make a new challenge for his linguistic powers. Of course, this-pillar-of-strength of the Howard government is wasted on this small island. Why wasn’t such an intellectual giant given a proper job? London, Paris, Moscow, or New York are four embassies which spring to mind.
And in one glorious moment of time you will have the exquisite honour of bowing over QEII’s hand. As you know already, in exchange for the Brits having two navel bases there, Cyprus was declared to be a member of the Commonwealth. It will be just like heaven for our dear Alex. A veritable home from home.
That our Alex got out of being charged over AWB scandal was a miracle- of course there shouldn’t have been a suggestion that he knew anything about the lies and deceit doing the rounds at the time but God knew he was innocent. He protected him. As for your comment that he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, well to use one of his favourite expressions “That is, limp wrist flapping, “SO OVER THE TOP as to be reprehensible”
Speaking as a constituent of his, I’d like to concur with those who have suggested he’s more than a few knives short of a full silver service. “The idiot son of the Adelaide establishment” he certainly is. If he had been born into any other family he would have amounted to absolutely nothing. Soon, thankfully, we will have a new member in Mayo, and while it will probably still be a conservative, hopefully it will be someone who will actually pull their finger out of their freckle and do what he’s paid to do - represent his constituents. His past 7 months of seat-warming has been an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money.
Jeez! I cannot believe. How could I have failed to notice until now?
Thank you Kevin Charles Herbert.
You have changed my life forever!
Downer should go down for life! Down with Downer!
One wonders whose political life will be ruined in Cyprus when our very own Lord Downer takes the field there. He has directly ended the careers of three Australian ambassadors to my knowledge, out of personal spite. And who can forget his speech extolling the virtues of the Liberal party in being the party strong on defence, by taking us to war in Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iraq? Very impressive also was his stout defence of US military involvement in Iraq, in which he gave the impression that the Australian government was prepared to fight to the last US soldier.
For anyone considering defending or praising Mr Downer, let me - as someone who has had the misfortune to observe him at close quarters both inside and outside parliament - disabuse them of the belief that he has any redeeming features. Rather than waste my prose on him, I’ll merely supply a list of the adjectives that apply best to him: ill-mannered (sometimes downright rude), vengeful, spiteful (all lurking under a veneer of truly nauseating false bonhomie), pompous, self-important and, worst of all, thick as two short planks. Of course the last-mentioned wouldn’t matter if he were just another puffed up Adelaide upper-crust twit, but hardly desirable in a long-serving foreign minister. I guess the worst thing about Downer is that he is indicative of the shallowness of the Australian political gene pool. Poor old Cyprus..
just one comment..how can a man .who stated ,the u.n is irrelavant.will take a job with them…sell your sole ,downer .just like you have done all this time…war criminal….
I’m with col emmaneul: Downer, Howard, Cheney, Bush, Blair, Rumsfield are all war criminals & should face criminal proceedings for their role in the Iraq war disaster. Would someone please explain what’s the difference between this bunch & the Serbian war criminals Rajtko Mladic et al.
Ordinary folk get 15 years to life for murdering one human being. while these so called ’ leaders’ get a pension & state protection for their part in the needless killing of 600,000 Iraqis plus a combined total of thousands of their own young men.
Howard should be pondering his final days on this planet thru cell bars at Long Bay. He is responsible for the actions of the only intellectually & morally corrupt Federal Government in Australia’s history, and should be subject of public contempt wherever he appears in public.
Sorry Richard. As Foreign Affairs minister, Downer had a responsibility (under a UN resolution) to ensure that Australia’s dealings with Saddam’s regime were not in breach of the sanctions. And he fluffed it. And rather than, as you put it, demonstrate “energy or effect in promoting the then Australian Government’s arguments”, he just pleaded total ignorance of everything. He was part of a government which sent Australian troops to fight in a warzone where the enemy was using weaponry funded, in part, by ‘trucking fees’ paid by Iraqi citizens using money intended for food and medecine, facillitated by Downer. I’m glad you’re in his fan club, but a lot of us can’t forget incompetence on such a grand scale.