The likelihood of Australia's Attorney General, George Brandis, being appointed next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom seems to be increasing.Meanwhile , Mr Brandis continues to maintain silence over his association with Dr Rahim Ghouse, a business partner of the former SGDT Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi.
High Commissioner to London: Speculation mounts that George Brandis will take over from Alexander Downer
Ellen Whinnett in London, News Corp Australia Network
Subscriber only
THE Turnbull Government is still undecided about who the next High Commissioner to London will be, with a looming Cabinet reshuffle in December likely to provide some answers.
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer is the incumbent but his term ended earlier this year and he is staying on for six months on an interim basis while a replacement is decided.
While Foreign Minister Julie Bishop usually chooses ambassadors and high commissioners, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull always takes an interest in the most senior jobs, such as High Commissioner to London and the Ambassador to Washington.
Stoke Lodge near Hyde Park, residence of Australian High Commissioner in London. Picture: Ella Pellegrini
Political appointees are usually favoured for these two plum diplomatic roles (former treasurer Joe Hockey is the ambassador in Washington) rather than senior officials and public servants.
Attorney-General George Brandis is still considered the favourite to take on the role in London, which usually carries a three-year term.
He has batted rumours for more than a year that Mr Turnbull was planning to offer him a diplomatic posting, but several sources have told News Corp he would be an excellent candidate and is expected to be offered the job.
Other sources say there was unhappiness in Cabinet about the internal advice he provided about the same-sex marriage plebiscite, and it was considered time he moved on to another role.
His potential retirement from the Senate would trigger a reshuffle and would cause Mr Turnbull some heartburn, as Senator Brandis, who is leader in the Senate, is one of his close allies.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II presents Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with the Insignia of a Knight of the Order of Australia as Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer looks on in 2015. The award plunged then Prime Minister Tony Abbott into crisis. Picture: AFP
However, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who would replace Senator Brandis as Senate leader, has proven his loyalty to Mr Turnbull and established himself as a valuable member of the PM’s conservative Praetorian Guard, led by Peter Dutton.
This would make it easier for Mr Turnbull to promote him in any reshuffle in December after the Parliament rises for the year.
Another complication has arisen around the future of Arthur Sinodinos, the NSW senator and one of Mr Turnbull’s closest advisers, who revealed this week he was fighting cancer.
Senator Sinodinos has taken an extended leave of absence but vowed to return to Parliament and scotched rumours he may have to retire.
Ms Bishop told News Corp that Mr Dower’s “extended term as Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom conclude in early 2018.’’
“A number of candidates are under consideration for the role,’’ she said.
Standing in the middle of the photograph below is the current Australian Ambassador to the NetherlandsThe Hon Dr Brett Mason. who was then, with George Brandis, a senator representing Queensland. Like Brandis, Mason also has maintained a stony silence with regards this photograph, and any dealings with Rahim Ghouse, a close business associate of the AL-Qaeda financier ,Yassin Al-Kadi, who was an UN and US specially designated
Zulfikar made no secret of his plans, often posting on Facebook messages such as these:
Zulfikar's postings contributed to the radicalisation of at least two other Singaporeans.
It was not as Zulfikar was an unknown.He did arrive in Australia in 2002 under a cloud, accused by none other than Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong of promoting Al Qaeda and its objectives in Singapore. Once here, as is now well known, he assumed a very high profile within the Muslim community,acting as the second in charge to Dr Abdul Rahim Ghouse, business associate of the Al-Qaeda financier Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi.
Brandis continues to maintain his silence, in Australia , about his dealings with Rahim Ghouse and Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia.It is more likely than not that under questioning,Zulfikar has already provided the Singaporeans answers to those questions. That makes our Attorney General and potential High Commissioner to the UK vulnerable to blackmail, "moral suasion", and a range of other coercive methods .
The fact that Anwar Ibrahim, a hero to some, is also in the picture should not provide any solace, given that Anwar's International Institute Of Islamic Thought was being at and around the time the photograph was taken being investigated in the United States for financing terrorism.
George Brandis QC, AG, needs to stand aside while the matter of his personal finances and funding obtained for political purposes is properly investigated.
Australia is the only jurisdiction in the world to have extended the right to issue law degrees to a Communist Party China liked entity. Former Commonwealth Attorney General George Brandis appears to have been involved in that matter, and new AG Mark Dreyfuss has a duty to investigate the matter.
In the inner sanctum of the cabinet's national security committee, there were some terse exchanges. The then secretary of the Defence Department, Dennis Richardson, emphatically rejected any suggestion that it was his department’s responsibility to police the critical infrastructure list. The Treasury hosts the body that has to consider foreign buy-ins of any scale or sensitivity, the Foreign Investment Review Board, but the Treasury doesn’t manage the list of critical infrastructure. “Well,” Scott Morrison asked at one point, “Who is responsible for managing the critical infrastructure list?” He looked around the table, according to multiple people present at the time. It was not a secret. In fact, the public website of the Attorney-General’s Department stated that it was responsible for managing the list.
It does look as if Brandis, who is currently High Commissioner to the UK, has treated matters of national security as if he were in court, where one can always rely on silence to justify the argument that a decision of the court is valid regardless of the facts because the particular issue had not been plead.
Unfortunately, the real world and in particular national security cannot work that way.
Brandis must provide answers, as do the NSW LPAB , its chairman Tom Bathurst, and all others involved in granting Zhu Minshen his history making license.
In the inner sanctum of the cabinet's national security committee, there were some terse exchanges. The then secretary of the Defence Department, Dennis Richardson, emphatically rejected any suggestion that it was his department’s responsibility to police the critical infrastructure list. The Treasury hosts the body that has to consider foreign buy-ins of any scale or sensitivity, the Foreign Investment Review Board, but the Treasury doesn’t manage the list of critical infrastructure. “Well,” Scott Morrison asked at one point, “Who is responsible for managing the critical infrastructure list?” He looked around the table, according to multiple people present at the time. It was not a secret. In fact, the public website of the Attorney-General’s Department stated that it was responsible for managing the list.
It does look as if Brandis, who is currently High Commissioner to the UK, has treated matters of national security as if he were in court, where one can always rely on silence to justify the argument that a decision of the court is valid regardless of the facts because the particular issue had not been plead.
Unfortunately, the real world and in particular national security cannot work that way.
Brandis must provide answers, as do the NSW LPAB , its chairman Tom Bathurst, and all others involved in granting Zhu Minshen his history making license.
Standing in the middle of the photograph below is the current Australian Ambassador to the NetherlandsThe Hon Dr Brett Mason. who was then, with George Brandis, a senator representing Queensland. Like Brandis, Mason also has maintained a stony silence with regards this photograph, and any dealings with Rahim Ghouse, a close business associate of the AL-Qaeda financier ,Yassin Al-Kadi, who was an UN and US specially designated
Zulfikar made no secret of his plans, often posting on Facebook messages such as these:
Zulfikar's postings contributed to the radicalisation of at least two other Singaporeans.
It was not as Zulfikar was an unknown.He did arrive in Australia in 2002 under a cloud, accused by none other than Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong of promoting Al Qaeda and its objectives in Singapore. Once here, as is now well known, he assumed a very high profile within the Muslim community,acting as the second in charge to Dr Abdul Rahim Ghouse, business associate of the Al-Qaeda financier Sheik Yassin Al-Kadi.
Brandis continues to maintain his silence, in Australia , about his dealings with Rahim Ghouse and Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia.It is more likely than not that under questioning,Zulfikar has already provided the Singaporeans answers to those questions. That makes our Attorney General and potential High Commissioner to the UK vulnerable to blackmail, "moral suasion", and a range of other coercive methods .
The fact that Anwar Ibrahim, a hero to some, is also in the picture should not provide any solace, given that Anwar's International Institute Of Islamic Thought was being at and around the time the photograph was taken being investigated in the United States for financing terrorism.
George Brandis QC, AG, needs to stand aside while the matter of his personal finances and funding obtained for political purposes is properly investigated.
Attorney-General Senator George Brandis is rumoured to
