One of the defining features of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership was the extent to which he was prepared to risk our international relations for domestic political gain.
Overall our foreign relations went backwards under Rudd.
Among the worst of Rudd’s diplomatic blunders during his troubled tenure as prime minister was his decision to leak a false version of a private conversation with the then president of the United States, George Bush.
The reported version of that conversation, later confirmed as fictional, was deliberately designed to make Mr Rudd look clever and the president look foolish.
It demonstrated an appalling lack of respect for our most important ally and caused grave offence at the time, as evidenced by a terse White House press release denying the report and the president’s distinctly chilly demeanour when next they met.
While the Australia-US relationship is far too strong to suffer any serious damage from such behaviour, it nevertheless caused significant ripples.
Another of Mr Rudd’s diplomatic gaffes was his announcement of his plans for a new Asia Pacific community by the year 2020, without first consulting the nations who would be integral to his proposal. It was not only inappropriate, it was just plain rude.
The critical factor in both instances was the lack of respect shown to the leaders and governments of other nations, who could justifiably believe that Mr Rudd’s primary motivation was a domestic political headline.
After the union bosses removed Mr Rudd and installed Julia Gillard as prime minister, it was to be expected that the new Prime Minister would seek to distance herself from the disasters of the Rudd government, even though she was part and parcel of the whole catastrophe.
Given Rudd’s much reported poor behaviour in the foreign policy arena, it would have been smart to tread carefully in recognition of the need to rebuild international trust in the leadership of this nation.
At the least, it was reasonable to expect Ms Gillard to seek expert advice before stepping into the minefield of people smuggling and border security.
Ms Gillard clearly took no such advice and announced to the media her plans to build a new regional processing centre in East Timor for asylum seekers.
This announcement had all the hallmarks of Rudd’s Asia Pacific Community blunder, with no consultation with the governments of the nations most affected by it, including East Timor and Indonesia.
She indicated that East Timor would host the regional processing centre, singling it out because it is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees. She did make one quick call to the President, Jose Ramos Horta.
While her apparent ignorance that the President is not head of the government of East Timor came as a surprise to some, the fact that Ms Gillard made only one phone call and to the wrong person, not bothering to make contact with her counterpart in Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, takes this government’s record of ineptitude to a new level.
This may well have made our new Prime Minister a laughing stock in East Timor, although Prime Minister Gusmao showed the diplomatic skill that Ms Gillard lacked by distancing his government from the proposal but suggesting that discussions could continue with President Ramos-Horta.
Ms Gillard revealed her tricky side after it became clear that the East Timorese were neither impressed by her plan for their country nor the manner of its announcement.
She claimed that she hadn’t referred to East Timor as a location for the centre. This was all too much even for those who had assumed that she would be better than Kevin Rudd.
Confronted with negative headlines, Ms Gillard attempted a back down from her back down insisting that she was in discussion with East Timor as a location for the regional processing centre after all, and with no other nation.
Meanwhile, the Parliament of East Timor passed unanimously a resolution rejecting Gillard’s proposal.
With Rudd-like arrogance, the new Prime Minister dismissed the resolution by declaring that it carried little weight because ministers do not sit in the Parliament. Would she likewise be so dismissive of a vote of the US Congress?
The Gillard government claims it will forge ahead with negotiations, notwithstanding the views of the Parliament of East Timor.
It has since been reported that President Ramos-Horta was part of a large delegation of East Timorese officials who were in China while Australian negotiators were in East Timor. This raises the question, with whom were the Australians supposedly negotiating, if not the President?
Reportedly, Prime Minister Gusmao has still not been “available” to take a call from Prime Minister Gillard.
The ham-fisted attempt to bully East Timor into fixing the Labor Government’s failed border protection policy should stop. Ms Gillard should simply face facts and admit she blew it. There is no new Gillard policy for cracking down on the people-smuggling trade or stopping the boats.
More disturbing is that Ms Gillard appears oblivious to the damage she has caused to the significant but sensitive relations in our region.
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