Friday, May 18th, 2012
Stars of Australia Award Recipients
The Stars of Australia Award is awarded to Australians and Americans whose achievements are numbered among the most notable accomplishments resulting from a long and distinguished friendship and collaboration between the United States and Australia. In past years, the AACC has honored winners from various fields of study including science, medicine, sports, and the arts. In 2011 our honorees were Professor Peter Hartley, Professor of Economics at Rice University; Professor John Higley, Professor of Government and Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin; and Janaki Lennie, Australian Artist, MFA University of Houston. Read below to find out more about this year's honorees.
Andrew Peacock
In 1966 Sir Robert Menzies retired and Peacock succeeded him as MP for Kooyong, in Melbourne's wealthy eastern suburbs. In 1969 he was appointed Minister for the Army, and in this role played a minor part in the drama which brought down Prime Minister John Gorton in 1971. In 1972 William McMahon made him Minister for Territories, in charge of Australia's colonial possession, Papua New Guinea, where he was responsible for bringing in self-government.[3]
When the Liberals went into opposition in December 1972, Peacock became a senior member of the Liberal frontbench. As a party moderate, he was a supporter of the new leader, Billy Snedden. When Snedden lost the 1974 election, Peacock began to be seen as a leadership candidate, but it was Malcolm Fraser who took the initiative and deposed Snedden in 1975. Fraser made Peacock foreign affairs spokesperson, and when Fraser led the Liberals back to power in December 1975Peacock became Minister for Foreign Affairs, aged 36.
He served as Foreign Minister until 1980, acquiring a reputation as an international playboy, particularly through his well-publicised relationship with Shirley MacLaine(his marriage had by this time ended in divorce). He had a number of acrimonious disputes with Fraser, particularly over the recognition of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. After the 1980 election he asked for a change of portfolio, and Fraser made him Minister for Industrial Relations. In April 1981 he suddenly resigned, accusing Fraser of constant interference in his portfolio. Fraser called a party meeting and defeated Peacock's challenge to his leadership.
In November 1982, when Phillip Lynch resigned from politics, John Howard succeeded him as Deputy Leader, and Peacock was brought back into cabinet as Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Peacock resigned from Parliament in September 1994. When Howard became Prime Minister in 1996, he appointed Peacock as the Australian Ambassador to the United States. Since the end of this appointment in 1999, Peacock has largely lived in the US.
In 2002 he married Penne Percy Korth, a Washington, D.C. society figure and former United States Ambassador to Mauritius. Midway through 2002 Peacock joined Boeing Australia Holdings as President of Boeing Australia.
On 20 December 2006, Peacock announced his retirement from Boeing Australia Holdings, effective at the end of February 2007. Currently, he resides in Texas.
Tom Schieffer
In April 2001, President Bush asked Tom Schieffer to become the Ambassador of the United States to Australia. He accepted and presented his credentials in Canberra on August 23, 2001 as the 22nd representative of the U.S. president, 63 years after the first, Clarence E. Gauss, a professional diplomat from Connecticut, presented his credentials to Australia's governor-general of the time, Lord Gowrie, on January 12, 1940. The two previous Ambassadors had been career officers with long-term diplomatic expertise, both former Directors-General of the U.S. Foreign Service, although it has been noted that Australian governments sometimes value a U.S. Ambassador's personal links to the President currently in office.
Returning to America to attend the first summit between Prime Minister John Howard and President Bush on September 10, 2001, Schieffer was in Washington on September 11, 2001 when the awful events of the day unfolded. Returning to Australia on September 12 with the Prime Minister on board Air Force Two, Schieffer and the White House worked with the Prime Minister and the Australian government to invoke the ANZUS treaty for the first time in its 50 year history so that Australia could come to the aid of the United States as a result of the terrorists' attack. Subsequently, Schieffer attended five more summits with the President and Australian Prime Minister in the next three and a half years as Australia raised its hand to help America in Afghanistan and Iraq.
During his tenure in Canberra, he coordinated closely with the Government of Australia on efforts to fight global terrorism and helped to deepen cooperation on rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
During Schieffer's tenure in Australia, the United States also negotiated a Free-Trade Agreement with Australia and significantly deepened the intelligence ties between the two countries. In his report to the State Department, the Inspector General said that Tom Schieffer had exhibited extraordinary leadership and organizational skills in leading the American Embassy in Canberra. The Inspector General said he had examined 83 embassies around the world and had found none that would compare. Later the State Department recognized the business plan for the Embassy organized by Schieffer as one of the three best in the world. After Bush's victory in the November 2004 presidential election, Schieffer announced that he would not serve another term in Canberra. He returned to the United States at the end of 2004, although he did not formally resign as Ambassador until April 1, 2005.
Based upon his work in Australia, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage recommended to President Bush that Ambassador Schieffer be moved to Japan to replace the retiring former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker as Ambassador.
Schieffer was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, the highest award that can be presented to a foreigner by the Australian government, for his work in strengthening the Australian American Alliance. After ending his almost eight year diplomatic career this January, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates awarded Schieffer the Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest civilian award the Pentagon has to offer for his work in strengthening the US - Japan Alliance. The Federal Bureau of Investigation honored him for his efforts to combat the international scourge of child pornography. The Director of National Intelligence awarded him the National Intelligence Reform Medal. The Central Intelligence Agency presented him with the Donovan Award. The Defense Intelligence Agency presented him with the Director's Award Medal. The National Security Agency presented him the Director's Distinguished Service Medal. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency presented him its Medallion for Excellence.
All of the medals and awards presented to Schieffer by members of the intelligence community were for his work in strengthening and reforming the intelligence cooperation between the United States and Australia, and the United States and Japan. Currently, Mr. Schieffer resides in Texas.
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