The head of the department of defence, Greg Moriarty, will succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia's ambassador to the United States. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Moriarty's appointment to the role on Sunday. A former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull and former Australian envoy to Iran and Indonesia, he has led the defence department since 2017. He will take up the posting in Washington from April. Moriarty was Australia's inaugural counter-terrorism coordinator and previously worked in US Central Command in the Gulf during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He represented Australia in Papua New Guinea, and as a negotiator of the peace monitoring group for Bougainville.
