New faces in Canberra and New York
by Sam Roggeveen
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2 March 2009 2:11PM
The Prime Minister has a new Senior Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security, Philip Green. The incumbent adviser, Gary Quinlan, will be Australia's new ambassador to the UN, replacing Robert Hill.
Hill was a Howard Government Defence Minister and a Howard appointee to the New York post. A good source tells me that having a member of 'the Opposition' heading that post was hurting Australia's credibility at the UN. If that's true, it's no reflection on Hill personally, just a political reality.
It will be interesting to see whether Quinlan's appointment marks the real beginning of Australia's diplomatic push for a UN Security Council seat in 2013, announced last March. The same source tells me the New York post has done little lobbying to now.
UPDATE: Martine Letts disagrees.
