The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's top official spoke to Australia's ambassador to France, Stephen Brady, twice in the days immediately after an incident that occurred while Prime Minister Tony Abbott was greeted on arrival in Paris on Anzac Day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And while Mr Brady did not formally offer his resignation, DFAT secretary Peter Varghese has refused to say whether the ambassador "canvassed" resigning during the conversations, citing confidentiality concerns.
Fairfax Media revealed in May that Mr Brady was on the airport tarmac with his partner of 32 years, Peter Stephens, waiting to meet Mr Abbott's incoming plane.
The Prime Minister's travelling party sent an instruction that Mr Stephens should not take part in the greeting but should wait in the car. The ambassador refused the instruction.
Labor Senator Penny Wong pursued Mr Varghese over the incident during a fiery Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
"Can you confirm Mr Brady offered to resign?" she asked.
"He didn't offer to resign in his discussion with me, and I think the Prime Minister has dealt with the question of whether he offered to resign to him," Mr Varghese replied.
"Did he canvas resignation with you in his conversation?" Senator Wong persisted.
"Well that goes back to where we started Senator Wong," Mr Varghese said.
"So that's a maybe?" Senator Wong observed.
At that point, Attorney-General George Brandis jumped in to defend the senior diplomat, stating: "No it's not a maybe senator, you may seek to draw an inference from the fact ... you may seek to draw your own inferences, that's entirely a matter for you, but the position is very simply that the content of these conversations is not being commented on for the reasons he explained".
After further probing, Mr Varghese said: "I've confirmed that he did not offer to resign in his discussions with me, I'm not proposing to go into other aspects of that discussion ... on the basis that they are confidential discussions, with an expectation of confidentiality from both parties".
Thawley
When previously asked about the incident, Mr Abbott said he "doesn't concern himself with trivia", blamed a junior official for the instruction, and said he was unaware at the time that the ambassador's partner was asked to wait in the car.
During Wednesday's hearing, Mr Varghese revealed Mr Brady called him the day after the incident.
"I had some private conversations in the week of the Prime Minister's visit," Mr Varghese said
"Some of our discussion related to the Prime Minister's visit, but nothing in my conversations with Mr Brady would add to the public record."
Mr Varghese declined to offer details of the conversation for privacy reasons.
But Senator Wong pushed back, arguing that "with respect, I'm not sure why it is private, you are secretary of foreign affairs, he is the head of mission, and he is talking to you about the circumstances of the Prime Minister's arrival, why is that not a matter of public interest?"
Senator Brandis again stepped in, arguing it was a private conversation.
Senator Wong shot back: "I don't accept that … Mr Varghese is an extremely experienced diplomat."
Mr Varghese concluded that for "me to be able to do my job properly, there has to be an expectation that the confidentiality of those discussions will be respected", though he conceded Mr Brady had not asked him to keep their conversation confidential.
The DFAT chief also said the advice to heads of Australia's diplomatic missions was that it was up to the ambassador to decide who should meet a minister or how they should be greeted.
Mr Abbott's arrival in Paris had not been a formal arrival, he said, and the Prime Minister's department observed the protocol that "when the Prime Minister is accompanied, depending obviously on local arrangements, it would be appropriate for the partner of the head of mission to be there, and when the prime minister is not accompanied, it usually wouldn't be the case".
