Hockey set to be named USA ambassador

Hockey’s tenure as treasurer was a rocky one that will probably be best remembered for a politically disastrous austerity budget handed down in 2014, from which many felt Abbott’s government never fully recovered.

Former Treasurer Joe Hockey has been officially appointed as the new Ambassador to the United States in Washington as an interview emerged where he admitted he would have been too focused on getting even with enemies if he stayed in federal politics.

“The face of Australia will be Joe Hockey, and so it’s a very important role”.

“I still have three or four years of desire to contribute to the country in one form or another It’s just the politics at the end of the day beat me”, he said.

“He’s held very high office, he’s got great contacts in the United States, he’s a passionate patriot”, he told Australian media.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australia-US alliance was the “bedrock of foreign and defence policy” and the US is Australia’s largest two-way investment partner. Hockey announced he was quitting politics after Abbott was replaced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a surprise leadership ballot of government lawmakers in September.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the ABC’s 730 program on Monday he would not comment on the appointment.

Hockey, whose Bethlehem-born father emigrated to Sydney to run a delicatessen, became a lawyer working on banking and finance after graduating from the University of Sydney.

Mr Hockey then spoke of his mission to introduce screening vans for regional New South Wales.

Kim Beazley, who has has been Australia’s ambassador to the United States since 2010, will be replaced by Mr Hockey in January.

Former senior Australian diplomat Ric Smith said there was a long record of political appointees to Washington going back to the 1940s.