When Donald Trump surprised the political establishment and won the 2016 US presidential election, there was a mad scramble within the Turnbull government to get in touch with him.
Australia’s then ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, came to the rescue by getting Trump’s number from the US-based Greg Norman, who was a friend of the golf-mad president-elect.
For Hockey, it was the beginning of a tough four years in Washington as he worked day and night to keep sweet with a volatile administration that had little regard for the alliance, or the region more broadly.