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Federal government ministers decided to announce a review of the Australian Embbady site in Australia without seizing the cabinet or seeking advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministries of Defense, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet were also not solicited for advice.
Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched the politically charged idea of moving the Israeli Embbady from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Mr. Morrison first raised the idea with Foreign Minister Marise Payne less than 48 hours before making the plan public.
The two men discussed the major policy developments in the Middle East on the telephone last Sunday afternoon.
The next morning, the "management team" of the government accepted the change, which was entrusted to cabinet colleagues.
On Tuesday morning, Senator Payne went next to Mr. Morrison at a press conference in Canberra to make this announcement.
They also confirmed that Australia was reconsidering its support for the Iran nuclear deal, while the Foreign Minister strongly endorsed the agreement reached at the UN just 18 days ago.
The announcement was made at five days of a by-election in the Wentworth headquarters in Sydney, where about 12.5% of voters are Jewish.
Senator Payne repeatedly insisted that the announcements concerning Israel and Iran were not policy changes.
"I reject the badertion that there is a policy change – it's a review," she said at the Senate hearing on the Thursday's budget.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not been consulted on both policy changes, and their agents have not provided any brief to the government.
Frances Adamson, who heads the department, was informed of the scheduled announcement in the afternoon before its publication.
She immediately called the department branch of the Middle East Department, which quickly moved on to action.
Staff provided advice on this announcement to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department and prepared a list of countries to inform.
Senior officials then called the phones, calling between 10 and 20 countries to inform them of the imminent announcement.
Indonesian officials in Canberra and Jakarta were informed Monday night.
Senator Payne confirmed that she had received a series of SMS messages from her Indonesian counterpart later that night.
She transmitted one of the texts to the Prime Minister, but not to other Cabinet colleagues, and denied revealing them.
The angry texts were then revealed by Seven Network, revealing a damaging diplomatic divide.
Major Australian military commanders have not been informed of major policy changes in the Middle East until the media has been informed.
The chief of defense, Angus Campbell, admits that he would have preferred it to be the other way around.
Defense officials learned the announcement scheduled Monday afternoon, but field operational commanders were only informed the next day after the proposal had made the headlines.
Australian Associated Press
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