Kathy Klugman: Key Albanese adviser becomes first woman to take on top intelligence role

Anthony Albanese’s chief foreign affairs adviser has been appointed to the nation’s top intelligence job, the first woman to fill the position.

But the appointment has prompted charges of hypocrisy from the Coalition after the Prime Minister complained five years ago about Scott Morrison making a similar move.

Kathy Klugman will become the next Director-General of National Intelligence, leading the Office of National Intelligence which provides intelligence advice directly to the Prime Minister.

She will take up the role when current ONI head Andrew Shearer finishes his term later this year.

In a shuffling of roles, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has appointed Mr Shearer as Australia’s next ambassador to Japan, which is an increasingly important security partner.

She is known to be close to Mr Albanese and is frequently part of his travelling staff on overseas trips.

The Coalition has pointed to hypocrisy in her appointment, after the then-opposition leader complained in 2020 about the Liberals putting Mr Shearer at the head of ONI.

“Mr Shearer has had an extensive career as a partisan operative… He is not an appropriate choice,” a spokesman for Mr Albanese said at the time.

Richard Marls, who is acting Prime Minister while Mr Albanese is on leave, told Opposition Leader Sussan Ley about Ms Klugman’s appointment earlier in the week.

“That is not meaningful consultation,” a spokesman for Ms Ley said.

“It is for the government to address why a long-term Labor staffer has been placed directly from the Prime Minister’s office into an intelligence organisation charged with providing contestable advice to government of issues of profound strategic importance to our national security and decision making.”

Mr Shearer last week told an Australia-Japan business conference in Perth that the global military balance was shifting against the West and that Australia’s adversaries were exploiting a preference for restraint and de-escalation.