Wed Nov 13

Former US ambassador accuses Sky News of creating a ‘self-licking ice cream’ to attack Kevin Rudd

Written by: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

The furore over Australia’s ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, is a “self-licking icecream” created by some at Sky News, former defence chief and former ambassador to the United States, Dennis Richardson says.

Richardson told The Conversation on Wednesday that the whipping up of the issue was driven by a combination of personal and political motives: to have Rudd removed from his post and to get at the Albanese government.

He said the Australian government should do “precisely nothing” in response, except to express its confidence in the ambassador, who had been doing “an outstanding job”, working across the aisle in Washington.

Richardson, highly respected on both sides of politics, previously headed ASIO (1996–2005), the foreign affairs department (2010-12) and the defence department (2012-17).

He was ambassador to Washington in 2005–10.

Rudd has come under fire over his previous social media posts denigrating Trump, which last week he deleted. Sky recently played footage of him describing Trump as a “village idiot”.

Richardson said the present controversy around Rudd “is not an issue that arose out of any normal process. This is an issue that’s been pursued by one news outlet.”

He said the origin went back to an interview British political figure Nigel Farage did with Trump earlier this year. Farage, resurrected what he described as some “most horrible things” Rudd had said about Trump. He said “our friends at Sky News Australia” had requested he ask the question.

Richardson said Trump’s response suggested he didn’t know who Rudd was, and his answer that “if he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long” was qualified.

Some presenters and other commentators on Sky had created a “self-licking ice cream” in relation to Rudd, Richardson said.

In political jargon a self-licking ice cream is described as “a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself”.

Richardson said Rudd had in the past said “some pretty strong stuff” about Trump – but so had people around the now president-elect, including the vice president-elect, JD Vance.

He pointed to a number of Liberals, including former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey and former prime minister Scott Morrison, who had said Rudd was doing a good job.

He said the campaign on Sky might well create a difficult situation. Some at Sky “may feed stuff to people around Trump or put questions [about Rudd] to people around Trump.”

A senior Trump aide, Dan Scavino, has posted on social media, replying to Rudd’s message congratulating Trump on his victory, an hourglass with the sand running.

On Sky this week, a former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer said “Mr Rudd is going to have some problems, Donald Trump doesn’t forget these kind of comments”.

Richardson said it would be “extraordinary” for a government to withdraw an ambassador because it thought he might not be acceptable to an incoming administration.

Who Australia’s ambassador was wouldn’t be in the top 200-300 issues in the minds of the Trump administration, Richardson said.

“Left to itself this wouldn’t be an issue.”

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has said on his podcast Australia’s Future with Tony Abbott ^[1], “I am confident that Kevin has been hyper active on our behalf as he sees it in Washington. So I would be surprised if there is any pressure from the Americans to change our ambassador.

"I have no reason to think that Kevin is not doing a good job at present. He will do whatever he humanly can to win over senior people in the incoming administration. And he’s already done everything he humanly can to row back his previous ill-advised remarks about the incoming president.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton told the ABC on Wednesday: “We’ve supported Kevin Rudd and we’ve made public commentary before about our support of the ambassador.

"It’s important that he does work in our country’s name. He’s been a very effective contributor to public debate, particularly as a former prime minister, he’s well respected. I hope that he’s able to form a relationship with the new administration as he’s done with the current one.”