‘Trashing conventions’: Coalition cries foul over PM’s pick for plum job

3 hours ago 3

The Coalition has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of hypocrisy and undermining national security after he hand-picked his office’s chief foreign policy adviser to lead the Office of National Intelligence.

Kathy Klugman, as first reported by this masthead on Thursday, departed Albanese’s office last week after serving for three years as his key political adviser on international affairs, accompanying him on key overseas visits.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Kathy Klugman, who has been appointed to be the head of the Office of National Intelligence.

It then emerged via The Australian Financial Review that she would replace Andrew Shearer, who is moving from the ONI to become Australia’s next ambassador to Japan.

In 2020, Labor in opposition under Albanese slammed the Morrison government for appointing Shearer to the position because he had most recently been a staffer in Scott Morrison’s private office, labelling him a “partisan operative”. Shearer worked for three Liberal leaders.

The ONI Act stipulates that the leader of the government, currently Richard Marles with Albanese on leave, “must consult” with the opposition leader about the pick.

A spokesman for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Marles informed her about the appointment earlier this week, arguing it was not “meaningful consultation”.

Richard Marles is acting as prime minister.

“[The Albanese opposition] attacked the appointment of the [Shearer], a distinguished public servant that they are now appointing to be the ambassador to Japan,” the spokesman said.

“Whether it is on freedom of information, cutting opposition staff numbers, or on appointments, the Albanese government is trashing conventions on an almost daily basis.

“It is for the government to address why a long-term Labor staffer has been placed directly from the prime minister’s office into an intelligence organisation.”

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Marles praised Klugman’s appointment and said she had a distinguished career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with a particular focus on the Indo-Pacific, and in senior roles covering Sri Lanka, South-East Asia and Afghanistan.

A senior Liberal source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the appointment was “shocking” and would be heavily scrutinised in Senate estimates because Klugman was considered a foreign policy expert, rather than a security specialist. The source said that at a time when the China threat was growing, the appointment was a worrying sign that Labor wanted to tame the hawkish instincts of the intelligence community.

A Labor source, also unwilling to be identified, said the Coalition was given five days’ notice of Klugman’s appointment, which also went through a proper cabinet process, where they claimed Shearer’s did not.

Klugman was a former deputy secretary at DFAT and will be the first woman to lead the ONI, an agency in the prime minister’s department responsible for advising the government on intelligence and security.

In October 2020, a spokesperson for the Labor opposition said Shearer’s pick was “not appropriate”.

“This position requires public confidence in independent, contested and apolitical assessments of our security. Mr Shearer has had an extensive career as a partisan operative,” the statement said.

Klugman’s appointment comes a year after the Australian Signals Directorate appointed Abigail Bradshaw as its first woman director-general. The Productivity Commission, Reserve Bank, Treasury, federal police all have their first woman leaders, all appointed by Labor.

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