The former treasurer Joe Hockey has been formally named as Australia’s next ambassador to the United States, ending months of speculation about his likely appointment, while triggering opposition questions about his suitability.
Malcolm Turnbull lauded Hockey as a “great Australian” and a “passionate patriot” with a good understanding of the workings of Washington.
“He is one of the most engaging, persuasive people I’ve known in public life. He’s held very high office. He has great contacts in the United States,” the prime minister said in Sydney.
But Labor raised some concerns about the “captain’s pick by Malcolm Turnbull” and noted the selection was announced just days after Hockey admitted he would have focused on settling old scores with his enemies if he had remained in parliament.
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, confirmed the appointment in a media release issued earlier on Tuesday.
“Mr Hockey is expected to take up his position in early 2016,” she said.
Bishop thanked Kim Beazley, the former Labor leader whose term as ambassador is about to expire, “for his significant contribution to advancing Australia’s interests in the United States since 2010”.
Pleased to announce appt of Hon Joe Hockey as Australia's next Ambassador to #USA 🇦🇺🇺🇸 https://t.co/1CUTzeEVqj @JoeHockey
— Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) December 7, 2015
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, questioned how Turnbull could trust Hockey to be the ambassador to the US when the prime minister did not trust him to be treasurer.
In an interview published on Sunday, Hockey said he still had “three or four years of desire to contribute to the country in one form or another”.
“It’s just the politics at the end of the day beat me,” Hockey told Mark Bouris, the founder of Wizard Home Loans and the host of Celebrity Apprentice Australia.
“I mean, if I was going to stay it’d be overwhelmingly about getting even with people that brought me down. I love my country and my family more than I hate my enemies.”
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said the opposition wished Hockey well because he would be filling one of the most significant diplomatic postings. But she said the comments about payback if he remained in politics were “an extraordinary admission by someone who is taking on such an important post”.
“What is even more extraordinary about it is the former adversaries he is talking about are the prime minister and the foreign minister – the very people he will be having to report to as ambassador to Washington,” Plibersek said on Tuesday.
“This is a very important posting for Australia and it should be done by someone who has a deep interest in foreign affairs. There are people questioning the fact that Joe Hockey has not expressed this kind of interest in the past.
“Our hopes are that he does well in the position. It is important for Australia and for our relationship with the US that he does well. This is no doubt a captain’s pick by Malcolm Turnbull and we hope for the sake of the relationship that it has been a good pick.”
The planned appointment of Hockey to the Washington role has been one of the worst-kept secrets in Australian politics.
Turnbull hinted at the plans when Hockey bowed out of the ministry and the parliament after the September leadership spill. “I believe he has a further contribution to make in our nation’s service,” the prime minister said at the time.
Responding to Hockey’s valedictory speech to parliament in October, Turnbull said: “You’ve done Australia proud. You will, I’m sure, do great things for Australia in the future.”
But the government waited until after Saturday’s by-election in Hockey’s seat of North Sydney to formally announce the diplomatic appointment.
Hockey’s personal popularity took a hit during his two-year stint as treasurer in Tony Abbott’s government, particularly as a result of the politically bruising 2014 budget and associated gaffes.
The first budget outlined cuts to family payments, punitive measures for unemployed young people, a new Medicare co-payment, removal of caps on university fees, and $80bn in long-term cuts to projected health and education funding that fuelled tensions with premiers.
The then treasurer declared the “age of entitlement” was over and Australia was “a nation of lifters, not leaners”, but his political opponents campaigned against the budget on the basis of “unfairness” and many of the measures were blocked in the Senate. Hockey drew criticism for defending fuel tax increases on the basis that “the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases”.
Hockey’s 2015 budget – which included tax breaks for small business and a childcare funding package – was better received than the first one, but the treasurer remained a target for internal Coalition criticism.
Turnbull specifically referred to economic leadership as a reason for launching the challenge against Abbott in September – although he insisted the criticism was not directed at particular ministers. Scott Morrison was promoted to the treasury portfolio in the sweeping reshuffle and is due to deliver a budget update next week.
One of Hockey’s last duties as treasurer was to publish, jointly with finance minister Mathias Cormann, the final figures from the 2014-15 budget. In a joint media release, they said the underlying cash deficit of $37.9bn was “a $3.3bn improvement compared with the estimate at the time of the 2015-16 budget”.
They did not mention the new deficit figure was still $14bn worse than the $24bn estimated for 2014-15 in the pre-election fiscal and economic outlook, which was was signed off by the secretaries of the Treasury and the Department of Finance before the 2013 election.
In his parliamentary valedictory speech, Hockey called for an end to “the revolving door in Australian politics” and said the Abbott government “was good at policy but struggled with politics”. In a swipe to the Senate, he said the government tried to achieve a lot in a short period of time and “had more courage than the parliament”.
On Tuesday Bishop said Hockey had also served the Howard government as the minister for financial services and regulation, small business, tourism, human services, employment and workplace relations.
She also referred to his pre-parliamentary career as a lawyer working on banking and finance and as the director of policy to the New South Wales premier.
Turnbull said Hockey was expected to take up his position in January but the precise date had yet to be locked in. The prime minister said Australia’s relationship with the US was “vitally important” and the ambassadorship was a “very important role”.
