Kevin Rudd will be ‘well received in Washington’ as Australia’s ambassador to the US, experts say

Experts have predicted Kevin Rudd will be “well received by Washington and highly active in policy circles” as Australia’s ambassador to the US, though the nomination has triggered criticism from some Coalition MPs.

Andrew Wallace, a Liberal party MP, said the appointment could go down in history as “a foreign policy disaster for Australia with its most important ally” if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, as Rudd called him “the most destructive president in history”.

“Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States,” Wallace said, and it was possible that Rudd “could be Australia’s ambassador to the United States with Donald Trump as its 47th president.

“It remains to be seen whether those chickens will come home to roost for Dr Rudd in Washington.”

Rudd is close to senior officials in the Biden administration, including national security council Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, and the former Labor prime minister has continued to build up his contacts during his time at the helm of the Asia Society thinktank.

The chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, Richard Fontaine, said those Washington contacts would stand Rudd in good stead when he takes up the post in March.

“He’s put in the time over the years and that is a major asset as he comes to town,” Fontaine said.

“By all accounts he is close to and has a direct line to prime minister Albanese, which of course is a distinguishing feature for any ambassador – the throw-weight within one’s own government.”

Fontaine said Rudd’s expertise on China was “a disproportionate benefit at this stage of the US-Australia relationship given how much of it focuses on China’s role in the Indo-Pacific.

“Adding all of this together, I expect Kevin to be well received by Washington and highly active in policy circles,” Fontaine said.

In an Asia Society webinar last year, Campbell praised Rudd as “the best, by far, China analyst – the person who gives us the most interesting insights about how China sees its position in the world, its challenges and opportunities ahead”.

The US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, welcomed the nomination of “distinguished former prime minister Kevin Rudd” as ambassador, saying it would “further strengthen the US-Australia alliance”.

Former Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey, who served as US ambassador between 2016 and 2020, agreed Rudd’s appointment was good for Australia.

“It says a lot that you now have American royalty in the form of Caroline Kennedy, who is the American ambassador to Australia, with a direct line to the president and a former prime minister for Australia with a direct line to the prime minister,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

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“It certainly elevates the relationship to a new level.”

Over the past few years, Rudd has been particularly outspoken against Trump and the influence of News Corp in both the US and Australia.

In February, when Trump praised the Russian president Vladimir Putin as “smart”, Rudd tweeted: “Donald Trump is a traitor to the West. Murdoch was Trump’s biggest backer. And Murdoch’s Fox Television backs Putin too. What rancid treachery.”

The director the Australia Institute’s international and security affairs program, Allan Behm, said he did not believe Rudd’s comments about Trump would “come back to bite” Australia.

“They’re no more or less pointed than many of the comments that have been made in the United States itself,” said Behm, who was a senior adviser to then shadow foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, from 2017 to 2019.

Behm noted the work of the January 6 congressional committee, which recommended to the justice department this week that Trump face criminal charges for assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States.

“If through some miracle Trump were to return – winning the Republican nomination and finding himself as president of the United States again – we would have to do some management at that time, but that’s increasingly improbable,” Behm said.

The Coalition raised concerns about Rudd’s commitment to the Aukus partnership, given he said in September 2021 that Scott Morrison saw the French relationship as “expendable” and had not set out the need for nuclear-powered submarines.

Rudd said at the time he suspected Morrison wanted “to make himself look big, important and hairy-chested in dealing with his domestic Australian political audience on the nature of the China challenge”.

Wallace said Albanese should clarify why he appointed the former PM to steer Australia’s involvement in Aukus “in circumstances where Dr Rudd considers that the Aukus agreement was simply throwing red meat to the conservative base”.

The Albanese government has recommitted to Aukus and is focused on reaching a submarine deal with the US and the UK by March.

Rudd said he was “greatly honoured” by the government’s decision, announced by Albanese on Tuesday. He said he had had the pleasure over the past decade of “building relationships with Republicans and Democrats across politics”.