Reader Poll: Should Julie Bishop Be Replaced as Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs?
A contentious opinion piece written by Australia’s former ambassador to China — Geoff Raby, stirred controversy earlier this week, as the former diplomat called on Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop to be replaced. Raby cited Bishop’s “bizarre speech” from 2017 in which she criticised China as being unfit for regional leadership within the Asia Pacific, as well as the fact that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has not visited China in more than two years, as reasons for his stance. As he explains in the article, “Australia… needs a foreign minister who is steeped in history and geopolitics, who lives and breathes the issues and who has a grasp of the profound challenges Australia faces in the rapidly evolving new world order being shaped”.
Bishop has of course faced ongoing scrutiny in recent months over some of the more contentious decisions relating to certain aspects of her portfolio — in particular, her decision which ultimately saw Australian tax payer money used in order to fund a scholarship program which is available exclusively to students from African nations. Clearly, Bishop has ambitions to acquire a plum job at the United Nations after she retires from Australian federal politics, and is happy to use the Australian people’s money in order to buy votes from other countries. Do you think the Australian people deserve better? Have your say in our poll below.
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