‘Low on the priority list': Trump administration in no rush to appoint ambassador
The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent.
The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand.
The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries.
Michael Green, chief executive of the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre, said that Canberra remained a 'coveted posting' in Washington, with high-profile former members of Congress and Republican donors lobbying to be appointed to the position.
'Trump is making them work for it and is not rushing to decide,' said Green, who served as a senior official in George W. Bush's administration.
Michael Shoebridge, who served as a senior defence policy official at the Australian embassy in Washington, said the lack of an ambassadorial appointment was part of a 'disturbing pattern' of a lack of engagement between the Albanese government and Trump administration, including the lack of a leaders' meeting.
'We are clearly low down their priority list,' said Shoebridge, a director at the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank.
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