What on earth was the Labor government thinking when they created the highly paid position of ‘Ambassador for First Nations People’?
It’s important to look at the timing. Justin Mohamed was appointed in March last year when Labor was still thinking there was strong support for the voice to Parliament, seven months before the referendum. In May last year, Labor’s Budget allocated $13.6 million to the new ‘ambassador’.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the ‘first nations ambassador’ is supposed to “implement a First Nations approach to foreign policy” and “embed First Nations perspectives and interests across the Government’s trade and investment activities”.
It doesn’t close any gaps. It doesn’t lift aborigines living in remote communities out of disadvantage. It doesn’t bring law and order to Alice Springs and other communities plagued by crime and dysfunction. It doesn’t stop the corruption and nepotism in the aboriginal industry. All the ‘ambassador’ position appears to do is be a ‘voice’ – not to Parliament, but to DFAT.
All the current ‘ambassador’ appears to have done is rack up frequent flier points. He’s made a bunch of trips to the United States, and one to Switzerland. So far his travel has cost taxpayers almost $150,000 on top of his $300,000+ salary.
Peter Dutton has said he’ll scrap the worthless position. One Nation never supported it in the first place, but we’ll scrap it too. Australian diplomacy needs only one perspective: the Australian perspective.