Peter Hartcher on Alexander Downer

Absolutely scathing piece by Peter Hartcher on Alexander Downer in today's Sydney Morning Herald, here are a couple of highlights -

...Downer can be petty and puerile. He plays a mean-spirited, personal, scratchy game of partisan politics. He can be breathtakingly immature.

He was always ready to be flippant and frivolous. He was something of an Inspector Clouseau of foreign ministers: pompous, slightly ridiculous, self-important, hard to take seriously, though ultimately getting through most of his assignments with some bare seat-of-the-pants competence.

...

Rudd came to win the respect and confidence of the voting public in the years he was facing off against Downer. The foreign minister was unable to derail or discredit Rudd. Instead, he was the perfect foil.

It was while Rudd was prosecuting the attack on the AWB scandal, the Iraq war, the "Pacific solution" and the failure to sign the Kyoto Protocol that he demonstrated his competence and soundness. It was this performance that persuaded the voting public, and then the Labor caucus, that Rudd was leadership material. In this sense, Downer helped create the leader who destroyed the Howard government [emphasis added].

Worth reading in full.  Doing some research last year on the Australian/East Timor oil and gas negotiations I was struck by how inept, cavalier and prattish Downer came across in his public statements on what was happening, frequently using the idea that "the East Timorese owe us for their independence" in order to justify taking earnings away from one of the poorest nations in the world (and who happens to be strategically important to Australian interests in the longer term).  I can't imagine he'll ever be welcome in Dili - not that it's his sort of destination anyway.  Good riddance to him.