Jakarta: Scott Morrison is leaning heavily on the nation’s most senior bureaucrats, and a top-secret panel of “wise elders”, to find a way through the political and diplomatic minefield he created by suggesting Australia could move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The decision on that move, which has provoked significant disquiet among Australia’s regional allies including Indonesia and Malaysia, is due by Christmas, but few details about it have been public until now.
Conversations with more than a dozen members of the bureaucracy, cabinet, and the foreign policy and defence communities suggest that the Prime Minister has ordered a whole-of-government review to sort out the issue.
The wide-ranging review underscores the government’s concern at just how diplomatically sensitive an embassy move – or even a compromise announcement – could be.
The boss of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, is also taking a close interest in the matter.
The head of the Department of Foreign Affairs Frances Adamson, Defence boss Greg Moriarty (a former Indonesia ambassador), Attorney-General’s boss Chris Moraitis are heavily involved, while spy agency ASIO and the Office of National Assessments have input too.
Unusually, once the review has been completed it will then be handed on to so-called “wise elders”, including former Defence and Foreign Affairs boss Dennis Richardson and former chief of the defence force, Sir Angus Houston, to further examine the implications and consider both the regional and domestic ramifications.
Read the article by James Massola in The Sydney Morning Herald.