A Foreign Minister making foreign policy


We really are close to accepting a presidential style of government when the pundits start worrying that a Foreign Minister might actually start making foreign policy. Yet that is what has been happening since the appointment of Kevin Rudd as Minister for Foreign Affairs. It is as if the notion that the man might actually have some ideas of his own and be something other than a mouthpiece for his Prime Minister is something to be alarmed about.
On the contrary, it seems to me to be a wonderful change for the better that our dealings with other countries and international bodies under a Julia Gillard administration will not just be a Prime Ministerial play thing and that the department of which Rudd is the ministerial head will once again become the principal source of advice to government rather than a secondary influence after an adviser in the PM’s office and a boffin or two within Prime Minister and Cabinet second guessing the real diplomats.

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