The US Senate has confirmed David Brat as America's next ambassador to Australia. The job had been sitting empty for 18 months, which is a long time for a position this important. Brat's confirmation was part of a batch of more than 70 votes Republicans pushed through the Senate on Friday before politicians headed off for their summer break. The Guardian

The ambassador role had been vacant since November 2024, when Caroline Kennedy — daughter of JFK and the appointee of then-president Joe Biden — left. Donald Trump nominated Brat in April 2026. A Senate committee held a hearing on 20 May 2026 to vet him, and the State Department had already put up a page describing him as well qualified, citing his background in economics, business, education, politics, and government. US State Department

So who is he? Brat is 61. He was a congressman from Virginia for two terms until 2018, when he lost his seat to a Democrat named Abigail Spanberger, who is now Virginia's governor. Before being tapped for the ambassador job, Brat worked at Liberty University in Virginia. Time magazine once called him a "Tea Party professor" — the Tea Party being the conservative, anti-tax movement that surged within Republican politics during the Obama years. He's also been described as a fan of Ayn Rand, a writer who argued for unregulated capitalism. In a 2011 paper, Brat wrote that capitalism and Christianity should merge. The Guardian

At his hearing, Brat told the committee he would work to expand the US partnership with Australia across the Indo-Pacific region, especially in the Pacific. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Having an actual ambassador in Canberra will come as a relief, because the post has been empty during a period of real trade tension. In July 2026, Trump slapped 12.5 per cent tariffs — basically a tax on imports — on many Australian goods. Australia was put on a list of 54 countries Trump accused of not doing enough to block goods made with forced labour. Trade minister Don Farrell called for the tariffs to go, saying they broke the terms of Australia's free-trade agreement with the US. An ambassador can't fix that dispute on his own, but at least having someone in the chair means there's a proper channel to work through it. The Guardian

Brat's arrival also comes at a tricky moment for the Aukus deal. Aukus is a security agreement between Australia, the US and the UK, and the headline item is a plan to get Australia nuclear-powered submarines. In May 2026, the Albanese government said it would buy three second-hand American submarines as part of the $370 billion deal. Former minister Ed Husic said in June that the change meant "we are not going to get the deal that was promised to us." Meanwhile, former defence secretary Greg Moriarty has been doing the job of representing Australia in Washington. Brat's arrival will line up with the 75th anniversary of the Anzus treaty, which is the mutual defence pact between Australia, New Zealand and the US dating back to 1951. Expect plenty of speeches about how strong the alliance is, at exactly the moment when there's a live trade dispute and a submarine program that has already changed shape from what was first promised. The Guardian

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said back in April he'd work with whoever Trump nominated. That's what Australian prime ministers always say, and frankly it's the only sensible answer when your country's security is so tied up with Washington's. The real question is whether Brat — whose career has been in academia and politics, not diplomacy — can be an effective go-between for two governments that are building closer military ties at the same time they're fighting over trade. The Guardian

Brat's background tells you something about how he'll approach the job. He's not a career diplomat who's spent decades learning the ropes of international relations. He's a political pick whose views line up with the Trump administration's way of doing things: treating trade as a transaction, being suspicious of international agreements, and looking at alliances in terms of what each side owes the other. Whether that approach lands well in Canberra is another matter. In Australia, both Labor and the Coalition see the US alliance as bedrock — it's one of the few things they agree on. Brat will be walking into a place where the alliance itself isn't in question, even if the specifics, like tariffs and submarines, very much are.