Австралия саяхатшысы және дипломаты Александр Даунердің өмірі мен қызметі

Australian politician
the Australian diplomat

Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018. Downer was born in Adelaide, the son of Sir Alick Downer and the grandson of Sir John Downer. After periods working for the Bank of New South Wales and with the diplomatic service, he was appointed executive director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in 1983. He also served as an advisor to Liberal leaders Malcolm Fraser and Andrew Peacock. Downer was elected to parliament at the 1984 federal election, winning the Division of Mayo in South Australia. He was added to the opposition frontbench in 1987. After the Coalition lost the 1993 election, John Hewson's position as leader of the Liberal Party came into question. Downer successfully challenged him for the leadership in May 1994, thus becoming Leader of the Opposition. He initially had high approval ratings, but after a series of gaffes resigned the leadership in January 1995 and was replaced by John Howard. He was the first Liberal leader to fail to lead the party to an election, and remains the shortest serving leader in party history. When the Howard government came to power in 1996, Downer was made Minister for Foreign Affairs. He served until the government's defeat in 2007, making him the longest serving foreign minister in Australian history. Downer left politics in 2008, and was subsequently named Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on Cyprus. He held that post until 2014, when he was appointed High Commissioner to the United Kingdom by the Abbott government.

The Downer family has a long history in South Australian politics. Their earliest ancestors were Mary Ann Downer (1792–1868) and her son Henry Downer (1811–1870), his great grandfather, who travelled from England in 1862 aboard the Eden, settling in Adelaide. Downer's father was Minister for Immigration in the Menzies government and later served as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. His paternal grandfather, Sir John Downer, served twice as Premier of South Australia in the late 19th century, and was later one of the inaugural members of the Australian Senate. Downer's maternal grandfather was the businessman and philanthropist James Hay Gosse, whose father was the explorer William Gosse. Alexander Downer was born on 9 September 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia, when the family were living in the Adelaide Hills home built by his father, Arbury Park. He is the third of four children born to Sir Alexander "Alick" Downer and Mary Downer (née Gosse); he has three sisters. Downer was educated at Geelong Grammar School in Australia, then in England (while his father was High Commissioner) at Radley College between 1964 and 1970. He subsequently completed a Bachelor of Arts in politics and economics at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne.

From 1975 to 1976, he worked as an economist for the Bank of New South Wales, before entering the Australian Diplomatic Service, where he served until 1982. Some of Downer's time in the Diplomatic Service was spent at a posting in Brussels, where he undertook a French language training course. He then worked as an adviser to the then Liberal Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser and subsequent Leader of the Federal Opposition Andrew Peacock. and in 1982 for the state seat of Bragg. From 1983 to 1984, he also served as the Executive Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce. as well as the first South Australian to lead the non Labor side since Federation. As Liberal leader, Downer initially attracted record levels of public support, even when incumbent Prime Minister Paul Keating launched a series of attacks on Downer's privileged background. Then aged 43, he was perceived as a fresh faced alternative to a government in its twelfth year of power. Several months after becoming leader Downer's support base was quickly eroded, however, by a series of embarrassing public blunders. One was the emergence of a 1987 speech to the far right Australian League of Rights. Another was the sacking of John Hewson from the shadow ministry in August 1994. A damaging incident emerged from a formal dinner attended by Downer. While promoting the Liberal slogan "The Things That Matter", in a reference to abusing husbands, Downer quipped that the party's domestic violence policy would accordingly be named "The Things That Batter". Downer also found it difficult to handle the gulf between monarchists and republicans in his own party but resolved the dispute by promising to establish a constitutional convention to consider the issue. By the end of 1994, his approval ratings had dwindled to 34 percent after being as high as 53 percent. Another event in 1994 that would spell the end of Downer's leadership was his decision for the Coalition to support the Keating government's sexual privacy legislation. The issue divided the Coalition with several MPs and Senators either voting against the legislation or abstaining from it. On 9 January 1995, internal Liberal Party polling showed that with Downer as leader, the Coalition had a slim chance of holding its marginal seats in the next election, let alone of winning government. On 11 January, Downer launched a major policy statement with ten policy commitments and criticised Liberals he saw as undermining his leadership. Downer negotiated in mid January with now back bencher Hewson, but this resulted in Hewson publicly declaring he wanted the shadow Treasury portfolio which meant Downer would have to sack deputy Liberal leader Peter Costello from the position to give the job to Hewson. On 30 January 1995, he resigned as Liberal Leader and John Howard was elected unopposed to replace him. Downer pledged his support to Howard and said he would "kneecap" anyone who undermined Howard's second attempt at winning the prime ministership. With a tenure of just over eight months, Downer is to date the shortest serving leader of the federal Liberal Party. He is also, alongside Brendan Nelson, one of two federal Liberal leaders never to lead the party into an election. On opposition leadership, he said in 2008, "The moment when I wanted to [leave] was just about the first day I started in the job. There was many a time from the first day onwards when I thought to myself, How the hell can I get out of this?

Following the Howard government's defeat at the 2007 federal election, Downer declined to make a comeback to the leadership and to serve on the Opposition frontbench, amid widespread speculation that he would resign his seat and seek new employment. He subsequently resigned from Parliament on 14 July 2008 and took a consulting job with Woodside Energy. His resignation triggered a by election in the seat of Mayo. On 3 July 2008, the University of Adelaide announced Downer's appointment as Visiting Professor of Politics and International Trade in the School of History and Politics, including contributions to teaching and research, and work with the University's Institute for International Trade. He was also the vice chairman at Carnegie Mellon University, South Australia. At about the same time, he went into partnership with Ian Smith (a former Liberal Party advisor and husband of former Australian Democrats leader and Senator for South Australia Natasha Stott Despoja) and Nick Bolkus (a former Labor Senator for South Australia) in a boutique consultancy firm, Bespoke Approach. Also in 2008, Downer discussed the possibility of working as a United Nations envoy to Cyprus with the UN Secretary General to help revive the peace process. The appointment received the support of the Rudd government, via the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, and it took effect on 14 July 2008. He resigned in February 2014 to take up the post of Australia's High Commissioner in London where he replaced former South Australian Labor premier, Mike Rann. On 10 May 2016, according to The New York Times, Downer and Erika Thompson met with George Papadopoulos in London and information from this meeting caused the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into Russia's attempts to disrupt the 2016 US Presidential election, and whether there was any involvement by Donald Trump's associates. Downer told The Australian in a 28 April 2018 interview that "nothing [Papadopoulos] said in their meeting indicated Trump himself had been conspiring with the Russians to collect information on Hillary Clinton". Downer remained as High Commissioner until 27 April 2018 when he was succeeded by George Brandis. He has had a number of board appointments, including the Advisory Board of British strategic intelligence and advisory firm Hakluyt & Company, merchant bankers Cappello Capital Corp., the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Huawei in Australia, and the board of Lakes Oil. Downer has said that Huawei should not be considered a potential national security risk. Downer's comments are at odds with an October 2012 US congressional panel's findings that have deemed Huawei a security threat to the US and other nations. A longtime supporter of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Downer has played a leading role opposing moves to replace the Queen with a president. In 2015, he was recommended by British and Australian officials as a possible compromise candidate for Commonwealth Secretary General but Baroness Patricia Scotland was ultimately elected to the post at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In 2017, it was announced that Downer would join UK think tank Policy Exchange as Chair of Trustees. In June 2018, Downer became the Executive Chairman of the International School of Government at King's College, London. He is a non executive director of CQS and of Yellow Cake plc. In 2018, he was named to Tilray's International Advisory Board. as of 2019, Downer is Executive Chair of the International School for Government at King's College London. In 2019 and 2020, Downer wrote regular columns for the Australian Financial Review. In his column on 1 November 2020 discussing the forthcoming US election (held on 3 November), he declared that if he was eligible to vote in the US (which, he explained, he was not), although "there's no perfect choice", he would vote for Donald Trump. In 2021, Downer joined ASX listed mining company Ironbark Zinc as non executive director.

In January 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal. Downer was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Australia Day Honours. In the same year, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Australia.

Downer is married to Nicky (née Nicola Rosemary Robinson), who is a prominent figure in the arts community and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for her service to the arts. They have four children, including Georgina Downer. He is an enthusiast of V8 car racing and holds a CAMS racing licence. In mid 2014, the Downers sold Brampton House in Mount George, though they intended to return to South Australia in 2017.

Alexander Downer was portrayed by Richard Binsley in the 2020 miniseries The Comey Rule and Francis Greenslade in the 2014 film Schapelle. He was featured in the musical Keating!, played by Cam Rogers (2006 Sydney run) and Casey Bennetto (2005 Melbourne run).

Election year Electorate Party Votes FP% 2PP% Result 1984 Mayo Liberal 31,131 52.40% 3.5 60.50% 1.8 1987 35,040 54.00% 1.6 62.60% 2.2 1990 39,037 52.50% 1.5 61.60% 1.1 1993 42,647 53.98% 3.43 60.60% 1.0 1996 46,920 57.02% 3.04 65.16% 4.56 1998 38,246 45.64% 11.37 51.74% 13.42 2001 41,529 52.76% 6.45 62.87% 2.97 2004 44,520 53.64% 0.01 61.81% 2.49 2007 45,893 51.08% 2.56 57.06% 6.53