Indulgence of readers this is Short Takes I of an issue, or a development, or a happenstance, or simply something that catches the eye, or maybe gets under the skin.
At risk of overloading crowded space I’ll put these “short takes’’ up on my website walkerperspective.com from time to time.
Let’s talk about Andrew Sharp Peacock from a journalist’s perspective, and one who reported his term as foreign minister more or less from beginning in 1975 to end in 1980.
This spanned assignments in Canberra as ABC diplomatic correspondent 1974-76, and Foreign Affairs correspondent for The Age 1976-79.
The first thing to be said about Peacock is that he was engaging, accessible and quotable. He also knew his market.
In the suburbs of his Melbourne electorate of Kooyong, The Age was then the paper of choice.
If he told you something on, or off, the record you could be pretty sure he was not embellishing the truth with the proviso that he was a master salesman for his own point of view, and the country’s for that matter.
In all the glitz of Peacock’s tenure, including his affair with Shirley Maclaine, he was a better and more creative foreign minister than he is credited with being.
He picked up the pieces of the Whitlam foreign policy that had opened Australia to China and vice versa; he worked hard on what was known then as the north-south dialogue as part of a New World Order; he paid attention to Australia’s responsibilities in the Pacific, partly informed by his brief tenure as Territories Minister in the William McMahon government; he behaved with integrity towards the East Timorese in contrast to his predecessors who had abandoned them; he stood up to Malcolm Fraser on recognition of the Khmer Rouge; and perhaps most of all he gave Australia a voice and a presence in international forums.
In a word, Peacock projected an Australian brand that more or less reflected how we might like others to view us -- outgoing, irreverent, and not bound by protocol.
In these dog days of Australian foreign policy, it is not clear that we have a brand beyond following the United States into and out of its various entanglements.
The Australian Afghanistan commitment is merely the latest example.
Peacock was far from perfect. He lacked principle on occasions. It might be said he lacked depth. His support for the Joh for Canberra campaign was not to his credit. It was driven by his dislike for -- and rivalry with -- John Howard.
Likewise, we might have done without his indulgences of Mr Trump.
However, all things considered my friend John Ridley’s assessment in The Age is pretty close to the mark.
“He was a professional, pragmatic and focused politician. He had a talent to draw people into his orbit – a charm, a self-deprecating wit, a certain style that grabbed attention of friends and foes, inside the arena of politics,’’ Ridley wrote.
That’s pretty close to the truth.
John Ridley was Peacock’s chief of staff throughout much of his tenure, giving way in the end to John McCarthy. Both served him well, and both shared his willingness to enable a constructive relationship with journalists.
Just as their boss understood that public diplomacy is the stuff of a country’s foreign policy, so did his staff.
In closing, let’s have an anecdote and an observation.
In 1976, I reported for The Age on the front page that the then ambassador to Jakarta was being moved to a lesser post in Manila. He was not losing senior ambassadorial rank.
The Fraser government had become disenchanted with a pro-Indonesia lobby in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in light of what had happened in East Timor.
The Indonesia lobby in DFAT viewed relations with that country like a wayang puppet show – to be conducted in the shadows.
Let’s not forget six journalists working for Australian outlets lost their lives reporting the Indonesian invasion.
The diplomat in question threatened to sue me and The Age on grounds the story had implied a demotion. In the process he asked Peacock for his advice.
Peacock’s response: “Not, if you can’t live with it (name withheld)’’.
Needless to say, we heard no more about the matter.
What Peacock had not revealed then, and has not revealed since, is that it was he who told me about the diplomatic shuffle.
Finally, let me indulge this observation about Peacock among Australian foreign ministers. He could reasonably be numbered in the top-10 on the basis of his profile, his longevity and, dare we say, a bit of a standout in a field that is not top-heavy with talent.
My top five would be: Herbert Vere Evatt on the basis of his role in the birth of the United Nations and his involvement in the drawing up of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Percy Spender for his work in establishing the Colombo Plan and turning Australia’s gaze towards the region; Richard Casey for his own efforts in shifting Australia’s perspectives closer to home; Paul Hasluck more for his work as Territories Minister than Foreign Minister, but in combination he served the country well; and finally Gareth Evans, whose energy and creativity enabled the Cambodian Peace Plan.
That’s Short Take I.