This is part two in a series. For the full series, go here.
Australia’s former ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, has no right to keep the title of ambassador.
Despite this he continues to be called the Honorable Ambassador Joe Hockey (Ret.) on the website of Bondi Partners, the US-Australia defence-focused business venture he founded immediately after departing the ambassador’s position in 2020.
While it is common practice for American ambassadors — like US presidents — to retain the title after leaving the position, it is not the case for Australian ambassadors. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade made the position clear in response to a question from Crikey last week.
“Australian heads of mission, whether high commissioners or ambassadors, occupy that position while overseas in respect of their official duties in the receiving state (or states). It is the accepted convention that they would be referred to as either high commissioner or ambassador for the duration of their respective posting,” the statement said.
“However, they do not and should not retain that title following the conclusion of their official posting in any circumstances. This applies whether they return to Australia or continue to reside overseas.”
Crikey sent questions to Bondi Partners for comment on “Ambassador” Hockey’s status but received no response.
Hockey, a former Australian treasurer, was briefly in the headlines last week when Bondi Partner’s global chair, Richard V Spencer, spoke at the National Press Club on the topic of AUKUS. Spencer was also a guest on the ABC’s Q+A last night.
Spencer is a former secretary of the US Navy, so it was a moment made in defence industry heaven when he and Ambassador Hockey teamed up. As we reported last week, Spencer and Bondi Partners have been early movers when it comes to AUKUS, ready to explain the detail on business opportunities within months of former PM Scott Morrison’s surprise announcement in 2021 of the then uncosted proposition.
Now with some $368 billion looking for a home somewhere, Bondi Partners is well set up.
In addition to its staff of senior former Australian defence officials, Bondi Partners established several investment funds, which it called Bondi Partners Patriot Fund, Bondi Partners Patriot Fund No. 1, Bondi Partners Patriot Fund No. 2, Patriot Fund, Patriot Fund No 1 and Patriot Fund No. 2.
Keen observers will note the influence of US-style love of country, if not directly the voice of the great patriot himself, Donald Trump.
On top of this, Ambassador Hockey’s business has also teamed up with Australian fund manager Ashok Jacob from Ellerston Capital, the investment fund long associated with the Packer family.
“I am pleased to join the Honourable Ambassador Joe Hockey on this important and exciting journey,” Jacob said at the inception of the fund back in 2021.
The 1941 Fund, as it was called, signifies a watershed year for the US-Australia alliance. As Jacob explained to The Australian in 2021, the year 1941 was not only when “that Australian prime minister John Curtin turned to the US, it was also the year the US entered into a whole new era after Pearl Harbor”.
Bondi Partners’ website links to the 1941 Fund, which states it invests in businesses that can help generate “material value-add with a focus on national security dual-use technologies, particularly in defence, cyber, intelligence, and space industries”.
“We don’t want to be thought of as a fund. It’s about bringing together a group of like-minded people who have a vision. National security is a government-induced gale-force tailwind for the next decade and that is the space that we want to be in,” Jacob told The Australian.
Some very wealthy individuals had already sunk their money into the 1941 Fund. It left Jacob in awe: “The Rolodex of Bondi Partners, it is peerless.”
However, there remains the question of the disputed title of Hockey, the cigar-chomping Coalition high-flyer and scourge of society’s leaners.
