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Who is Jay Weatherill, Australia’s next top diplomat in London?

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  • November 10, 2025 at 3:54 pm #17323

    Alexender Noah
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    Who is Jay Weatherill, Australia’s next top diplomat in London?

    As the prime minister just announced, the former South Australian Labor premier and early childhood education advocate Jay Weatherill will be Australia’s next top diplomat in London.

    Weatherill was South Australia’s 45th premier, replacing Mike Rann, who also went on to become Australia’s high commissioner to the UK.

    Across more than six years leading the state, he narrowly won the 2014 election, oversaw major changes to the state’s health and energy system and held a royal commission into opportunities to expand SA’s role in the nuclear fuel cycle.

    He famously clashed with then federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg at an extraordinary press conference in 2017, in which he accused the Turnbull government of being the “most anti-South Australia Commonwealth government in living history”.

    He lost the 2018 election to the Steven Marshall-led Liberals, ending a 16-year political career.

    Weatherill was later tapped to review federal Labor’s shock 2019 election defeat before moving to Perth to lead the Thrive By Five early childhood education initiative at Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation.

    He was recently appointed to lead a snap review of Victoria’s childcare sector after allegations of sexual abuse by a worker.

    Weatherill will replace Stephen Smith, a former Rudd and Gillard minister, at Australia House.

    His appointment means three of the past five ambassadors to the UK have been South Australians after Rann and Alexander Downer served in the key diplomatic posting.

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