General Angus Campbell retired as Chief of Defence Force in 2024 after a six-year tenure. Photo: Lowy Institute.
Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong has announced that the former Chief of Defence Force General Angus Campbell (Ret’d) will be Australia’s next Ambassador to Belgium.
He will replace Ms Caroline Millar in the role which also includes the posts of Ambassador to the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Luxembourg.
General Campbell was Chief of Defence Force from 2018 to 2024, during which he presided over a period of great change and controversy. This period included a rapidly growing and more belligerent Chinese military, the implementation of the trilateral AUKUS construct with the US and UK, and the 2020 handing down of the Brereton Report which reported on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2016.
He had previously held the positions of Chief of Army from 2015 to 2018, Commander Operation Sovereign Borders from September 2013 to 2015, and Commander of Joint Task Force 633 in the Middle East from 2011 to 2012.
He was extended in the position as CDF in 2022 by the then incoming-Albanese Government, but by the end of his tenure was reported to have had a fractured working relationship with Defence Minister Richard Marles. He was replaced as CDF in July 2024 by Admiral David Johnston.
Senator Wong said General Campbell’s, “experience as Chief of the Defence Force from 2018 until 2024 will help deepen Australia’s peace and security cooperation with NATO, both in the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific.”
In other ambassadorial postings, Mr Peter Truswell has been appointed as Australia’s next Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia which also includes accreditation to Montenegro and the Republic of North Macedonia, replacing Mr Daniel Emery in the post.
Mr Truswell is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with postings including as Director of the India Economic Roadmap Taskforce, and Consul-General in Mumbai, Deputy Head of Mission in Kabul and diplomatic missions in Seoul and the United Nations in Geneva.
Mr Brenton Kanowski has been appointed as Australia’s next Consul-General in Lae in Papua New Guinea, replacing outgoing Consul-General Mark Foxe in the post.
Mr Kanowski is a career public servant. He has served at the Australian High Commission in Tarawa in Kiribati, and has held positions in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Commonwealth Treasury, and within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Office of the Pacific.
