Ambassador Joe Hockey accepts responsibility after no women or people of colour chosen to reflect friendship between two countries

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Australian embassy in the United States has retracted a campaign of “mateship” designed to highlight friendship between the two countries after 15 “patrons” it chose were all male and white.

The ambassador, Joe Hockey, responded to criticism of the monotone board by apologising and agreeing that it “should be fixed”.

Hockey wrote on Twitter that he accepted “responsibility” for the campaign and that “only all former presidents, PMs and ambassadors from both countries were originally invited”, including Julia Gillard.

However, the list of 15 released on Wednesday to mark US Independence Day did not include Gillard, a distinguished fellow at the US Brookings Institution as well as a former prime minister.

The former US president, Barack Obama, was also excluded, although the ambassador he appointed to Australia, John Berry, was among the 15. It also included one sportsman, the Australian basketballer Matthew Dellavedova, and the former Liberal party leader and US ambassador Andrew Peacock.

Prominent Australian sportspeople in the US such as Ben Simmons – recently named NBA rookie of the year – and Lauren Jackson, a four-time Olympic basketball medallist, were absent.

Hockey said Dellavedova was the first non-political patron to respond to the invitation and that more people were being invited.

neigh (@naycation) the only people i want to see on the @dfat patrons of mateship list pic.twitter.com/z2nkIrlck0

The embassy said the “mateship program” aimed to highlight “Australia’s strong military alliance with the United States over the past 100 years in the lead up to the centenary of the battle of Hamel on 4 July 2018”.

“Mateship” between Australia and the US, the embassy said on its website, was “forged in battle” and was “the bedrock of a unique contemporary relationship across many shared fields of endeavour”.

Danielle Cave (@DaniellesCave) This is appalling. Aust's US embassy has selected 15 'Patrons of Mateship' to highlight the 🇺🇸-🇦🇺 r'ship. It's 15 men, 0 women. What this 15x🚹 #manel actually highlights? Influential parts of our foreign policy/security community still don't value gender & cultural diversity pic.twitter.com/xNj0IQoAd6

The list included politicians from both sides of Australian and US politics including Malcolm Turnbull, former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and John Howard, and former US presidents Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush (but not George W Bush).

The all-male list was initially reported by womensagenda.com and after inquiries were made to the foreign affairs department by reporters including from the Guardian, Hockey made his retraction.

A spokesman for the department said later in a statement sent to the Guardian: “DFAT is reviewing the mateship program run by ambassador Hockey so that it aligns with our commitment to ensure balance, and reflects the diversity of Australia and the United States.”



The 15 people on the original list were

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former PMs Kevin Rudd and John Howard



former US presidents George HW Bush and Jimmy Carter



former opposition leaders and Australian ambassadors to the US Kim Beazley and Andrew Peacock



former US ambassadors to Australia John Berry, Tom Scheiffer and Melvin Sembler



former senior Australian public servants Michael Thawley and Don Russell



former US public servants Michael Cook and FR Dalrymple



Australian basketballer Matthew Dellavedova

