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In a rare exclusive interview, IA senior correspondent Barry Everingham speaks to distinguished diplomat Richard Woolcott, who says he is going into bat for Australia again to help his beloved nation win a prized place on the UN Security Council.
Richard Woolcott, who represented Australia on the UN Security Council from 1984 to 1986 while serving as our Permanent Representative at the UN, is again on his way to New York to assist in this country’s quest for a seat on the Council.
He says he is “quietly optimistic” of success but points out the other serious contenders, Finland and Luxembourg, will have the support of members of the European Union.
He is one of Australia’s most respected diplomats, having represented this country in Moscow, Ghana, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, as well as many international organisations. His stellar career ended with his appointment as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The first Prime Minister he served under was Robert Menzies, his last was Robert Hawke.
There were four Australian diplomats on the Security Council before Woolcott was appointed.
He points out that two Howard Government ministers, Alexander Downer and Robert Hill, are active in New York seeking support for Australia’s bid, and that former Treasurer Peter Costello is also backing the effort.
“I will be assisting them, along with two former DFAT colleagues; Bill Fisher, whose contact with French speaking African countries is second to none, and one of our most experienced former officers — John McCarthy,” he said.
Woolcott, ever the diplomat, would not go so far as to say whose vote was locked in.
“We just don’t know,” he said, however he has mentioned India, Pakistan and several island nations in the Pacific region.
Our generosity in distributing aid to various countries and UN and other international bodies will, of course, help — but it shouldn’t be inferred that the aid will assure our success.
“And in the UN” he says, “it’s anyone’s guess who will win.”
Woolcott’s eldest son, Peter, has followed in his father’s footsteps, and is currently Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and the Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva.
Richard Woolcott says he has no patience with people who say if we are outvoted by a country smaller than Tasmania, meaning Luxembourg, it will demean us — they really have either not done their homework or are poorly briefed.
He didn’t mention Tony Abbott by name, however, as this argument is regularly put by the Leader of the Opposition when making opportunistic anti-Government speaking points.
Says Woolcott: “Our history with the UN is long and distinguished.”
Dr HV Evatt was the President of the UN General Assembly from 1948 to 1949, when he helped draft the Universal Declaration on Human Rights before returning to Canberra, where he became Leader of the Opposition for many years, eventually ending his career on Bench of the NSW Supreme Court.
Finally, he said it was self-evident that an Australian presence on the Security Council will introduce a South East Asian focus to the membership which, in the main, has previously been Eurocentric.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
8 Comments
Blogs never break real news – so IA must *not* have this exclusive interview with diplomat Richard Woolcott: http://t.co/RT2Jr4sf
The corporate and the corporatized institutions play another move.
I suspect Europe will get the seat as the placation may go down well with all the thieving from the people and concentration of power. Of course all for the greater good of those above and the scraps dropped rawther greatly appreciated.
While some very well to do snappy chappy’s get rawther vurry important pieces written on them, I would say do not worry. This country is up to it’s neck in the corporate globalisation move whether we get a seat or not. So I rawther suspect we will be pouring even more mega millions into global plans by the way the lowly here are being forced to pay for it all.
Perhaps someone could varry importantly go to the United Nations of business and planning and bring back home the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the good Doctor Evatt has misplaced or stole on purpose. I would rawther think they will be found wherever the United Nations charter for Nature and the Environment got thrown or stuffed.
yeah if we were relying on the old australian image as a bunch of cutpurse hoodwinking fabricators, then yes.. we SHOULD win a seat.
if, however, the UN chooses it’s positions based on freedom, peace, equality, fairness, and INDIVIDUALITY then, no, they’d be better off giving the seat to the south pole.
Today the UNHCR again told the government that shoving refugees to Manus Island was wrong and illegal and they said they might take the comments on board, meanwhile a young Iranian refugee almost killed himself on Nauru.
If we cannot even be bothered upholding the universal declaration of human rights on the most basic of levels then why does anyone think we deserve any respect at all let alone a seat on the UN.
After all we have a seat on the UNHCR exec. committee and we throw the laws in the bin when it suits.
Dear BARRY EVERINGHAM, congratulations on securing this exclusive interview with our master diplomat RICHARD WOOLCOTT.
Was he asked by the GILLARD government to ‘ assist ‘ in Australia’s endeavours to win a seat on the UN SECURITY COUNCIL ?
Also, didn’t Woolcott do some similar troubleshooting for the RUDD and or HOWARD Governments? Wasn’t he called in to ‘ assist’ them ?
The behemoth in the UN Security Council chamber is the justifiable fear of other countries that if Australia got a seat at the table it would simply be there to do the bidding of the United States that after grotesquely mismanaging the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan ( let’s not kid ourselves ) has now turned its crosshairs onto the Asian region and with our help, is busily engaged in undermining Australia’s relationship with China and is building up the militarisation in the Pacific and other seas.
Full of our own importance, and lacking in political grace and diplomacy, Australia has openly ridiculed rival Luxembourg’s bid
for a seat on the Council, immediately incurring the wrath and disdain and contempt of other, smaller countries.
As it is, Australia is so gutless, that we often abstain from voting on contentious issues. As other countries do.
It is my belief that those countries who nominate for and are on the Security Council should be compelled by the rules to vote on every single issue.
It is time that the UN had an overhaul. And renewed its vows.
It is all we have, and it has some fine and noble aspirations, but there are some insidious and odious influences and alliances in the various coteries that have been reflected in its response times in past and more recent conflicts.
If the UN was an ambulance service. It would be picking up only
dead patients.
Richard Woolcott is much respected internationally and after his mission is completed, I think he should lead a Council of International Elders and Peacemakers appointed to reforming the
UN.
It is no small irony that so many areas of conflict in today’s world are directly sourced to decisions made around the time of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations.
I note that the interview says nothing about the Woolcott role in the East Timor tragedy, or in seeking to justify the Australian role in Vietnam.
Dear GREGORY CLARK, can you elaborate ?
CONGRATULATIONS TO FORMER PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD
FOR INITIATING THE NOW SUCCESSFUL BID FOR A SEAT ON THE UN SECURITY
COUNCIL.
CONGRATULATIONS TO RICHARD WOOLCOTT AND ALL THE TEAM WHO WORKED ON
THE BID.
RICHARD WOOLCOTT SUPPORTS UN REFORM
Good to hear Woolcott comment on radio early this morning, and mention of UN reform.