Carr takes the tough decisions for his mates

ANY IDEA that NSW Labor can learn from mass rejection should be dispelled by news this week that the first - and so far only - act of our new Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, is the appointment of his old mate and Labor luvvy John McCarthy, QC, as Ambassador to the Vatican. That's getting priorities in order.

This John McCarthy is not the diplomat many Australians admire, whom many Canberrans, including myself, regard as a relative or friend or (as in my case) both. That one, now semi-retired, served in many of our senior diplomatic posts with great distinction over 40 years. He and his father should have the patent on the name for diplomatic jobs. The upstart has been an adviser and fixer for NSW Labor over many years. Like many in the Carr push, he is a devotee of obscure and unimportant American history. He has already had many Labor patronage positions, such on the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. Another, recorded by himself in his Who's Who entry was honorary attache to Tanzanian athletes at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Carr didn't hand sinecures like that to idiots, you know.

The upstart McCarthy is also highly regarded within the bosom of the Catholic Church, as an honorary legal adviser. From it too he has enjoyed rich patronage, not least by being made, alongside Rupert Murdoch, a Papal Knight - as a Knight (First Class) of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great.

People like ''Sir'' John and ''Sir'' Rupert get their titles - alas unregarded in any Australian table of precedence - ''in recognition of personal service to the Holy See and the Church, unusual labours, support of the Holy See, and the good example set in their communities and country''. The last prominent Labor citizen to get one was Arthur Calwell. His nomination is thought to have come from Cardinal Gilroy in Sydney as a sort of ''up yours'' to the then Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix, who had (for Victorians) anathematised the ALP Calwell led. (Since then Gilroy's victory, in Rome, over Mannix has been reversed, and apostles of Mannix now rule the Sydney consistory.)

''Sir'' John was a principal adviser to the former Archbishop of Canberra, Mark Coleridge, in debates with the Little Sisters of Mary over the future of the publicly funded Calvary Hospital. The archbishop's '' victory'' with that may well ensure that no auditor-general, properly instructed, will ever again endorse the transfer of assets to Catholic organisations.

No one doubts that ''Sir'' John will faithfully report Vatican views to Canberra, if anyone is listening. The question is about how well this professional acolyte will represent Australia to Rome, in case anyone there cares. The Embassy at $2 million plus a year is a self-indulgence difficult to justify as we close others that matter. At least ''Sir'' John's predecessor, Tim Fischer, was, Catholic and all, quintessentially Australian.