The new Australian High Commissioner in London will be moving back into his teenage home when he takes up his position in May. Alexander Downer, whose appointment was announced yesterday, lived at the splendid official residence, Stoke Lodge near Hyde Park, when his father was High Commissioner in London from 1964-72. He went to school and university in the UK, so he knows us very well indeed.
Alexander certainly has a very strong background for the job. He was Australia’s longest-serving Foreign Minister, holding the post for over eleven years from 1996-2007. Much earlier in his career he was an Australian diplomat before going into politics. Most recently he has been the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus.
I’ve got to know Alexander, and his British wife Nicky, well on my regular visits to Adelaide over the past three years, so I’m very much looking forward to working closely with him. We’ll have a busy agenda together, across all the foreign and defence policy collaboration we recently discussed at AUKMIN, as well as G20, commercial ties and all the many people to people exchanges.
Alexander’s appointment means we’re saying farewell to Mike Rann somewhat earlier than expected. Mike has been doing a great job in London and we’ll miss him. But he’s taking up an important new appointment as Ambassador in Rome and we wish him and Sasha well there.