Former Liberal senator Brett Mason has been named as Australia's next ambassador to the Netherlands, just six days after resigning from the Senate.
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Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced the appointment of Dr Mason, who served as her parliamentary secretary for the first 15 months of the Abbott government before a demotion in December's reshuffle, on Tuesday afternoon.
Dr Mason's appointment is the latest in a string of diplomatic postings handed to former Liberal MPs, though when Labor was last in government it took a similar approach.
Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer was named high commissioner to London in February 2014, with former Labor South Australian premier Mike Rann who was previously in the position moved on to Italy. Similarly, former Victorian Labor premier Steve Bracks was blocked from taking up the post of consul-general to New York. The plum posting was instead given to former Liberal finance minister Nick Minchin.
And former Liberal MP Barry Haase was appointed administrator of Christmas Island, replacing another former Labor politician in the shape of ex-ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope.
Labor also appointed former leader Kim Beazley as ambassador to Washington when in power, a posting the Coalition government has since extended.
Announcing the appointment, Ms Bishop praised her former colleague's service in the Senate from July 1999 to April 15, 2015 and highlighted his experience as a lecturer in criminology lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, a human rights officer with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia and as Commonwealth prosecutor.
Dr Mason will take up the job in mid-2015, replacing Neil Mules.
Fairfax Media has contacted Labor and the Greens for comment on the appointment.
