August 2026

Here’s a novel idea for government: develop the strategy before spending millions of dollars implementing it.

Apparently that was too much to ask of the Federal Government and its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for First Nations People, Justin Mohamed, was appointed in 2023.

His office was given a four-year budget of $13.6 million. There are around 10 staff. The ambassador’s salary is reportedly around $400,000 a year.

International travel by Mohamed and his support staff has reportedly climbed towards $1 million.

And consultants were brought in to help develop a strategy.

Yet the actual First Nations International Engagement Strategy wasn’t published until July 2026.

That’s the bureaucracy at work.

Create an office. Appoint an ambassador. Hire the staff. Allocate millions of dollars. Start travelling the world. Engage consultants. Hold more than 100 consultations.

And somewhere along the way, perhaps think about producing the strategy that explains what all these people are actually supposed to be achieving.

This would be funny if taxpayers weren’t paying for it.

The absurdity reached peak Canberra in Senate Estimates in June, when officials were asked when the strategy would actually appear.

DFAT secretary Jan Adams suggested it was better understood as a “direction” rather than a document.

In other words, after years of expenditure and a consultancy contract worth up to $266,000, the strategy apparently existed somewhere in the bureaucratic ether.

Then, remarkably, a document appeared the following month.

And what did taxpayers get for this marathon exercise?

A strategy reportedly running to just 16 pages, with critics claiming roughly half of it is filler.

The document establishes four broad priorities: strengthening Pacific partnerships; promoting First Nations rights and diplomacy internationally; expanding trade and investment opportunities; and improving DFAT’s ability to promote First Nations perspectives overseas.

Whatever anyone thinks of those objectives, there is a much bigger issue here.

Why did it take three years to write them down?

Government repeatedly tells Australians that major problems require more funding, more staff, more consultation, more departments, more offices and more strategies.

But this episode demonstrates the disease inside modern bureaucracy.

Process becomes the product. Consultation becomes an achievement. Spending becomes evidence of activity. Travel becomes work.

And producing the document that should have guided the entire operation becomes something that can apparently wait three years.

There may well be worthwhile opportunities to promote Indigenous Australian businesses internationally and strengthen relationships with Indigenous peoples in other countries.

But none of that excuses basic administrative incompetence.

A private-sector organisation handed millions of dollars, a team of employees and an international remit would be expected to establish clear objectives, measurable outcomes and a strategy before embarking on years of expensive activity.

Canberra apparently operates differently.

First comes the office. Then comes the spending. Then comes the travel. Then comes the consultancy.

And eventually, three years later, comes the strategy.

Only government could call that planning.