Former top diplomat reveals what Asia really thinks about us

As I enter the lobby at Sydney’s Four Seasons Hotel near Circular Quay, 20 minutes early for lunch with former diplomat John McCarthy, a seated figure waves his hand. We haven’t met before, but there’s no one else around and it’s clear we are both suckers for the peculiar punctuality that's a marker of these strange times. With non-virtual appointments still few and far between, people are early for meetings,

McCarthy, who has a remarkably big reputation for a man who spent his career acting behind the scenes, is dressed smart-casual, has a warm smile and speaks in a calm, considered tone. And today, he's not much interested in small talk.

I’m excited about my first restaurant meal in two months, but McCarthy, staying in Sydney for a few days away from his Canberra home, ate out the night before.

He's more interested in jumping into the big news of the day as we fill in our waiting time. The World Health Assembly has formally adopted the COVID-19 resolution that calls for an "evaluation" of the handling of the coronavirus.

We get into stuff we don't need to. We say things that seem, particularly to those from an Asian background, extraordinarily ill-considered.
— John McCarthy, former diplomat

The Morrison government is trying not to appear triumphant, China has rather rudely described the perception that Australia has won as a joke, and the US is sort of on board but not all the way.

McCarthy, a former ambassador to the US, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico, and high commissioner to India, believes the role Australia played in the lead up to the WHA resolution sums up all that is wrong with our foreign policy now.

"My quibble with a lot of policy is that we get into stuff we don't need to. We say things that seem, particularly to those from an Asian background, extraordinarily ill-considered."

The call by Foreign Minister Marise Payne for a coronavirus inquiry, made just four days after US President Donald Trump made a similar demand, is an example of such stuff.

"Among my contacts, the perception was we were clearly following Trump, who has proved himself to be inept and totally driven by domestic political considerations. That is not smart. That is not intelligent foreign policy."